Wisdom 12:8-10
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
8 But even these you spared, since they were but mortals
and sent wasps as forerunners of your army
that they might exterminate them by degrees.(A)
9 Not that you were without power to have the wicked vanquished in battle by the righteous,
or wiped out at once by terrible beasts or by one decisive word;(B)
10 But condemning them by degrees, you gave them space for repentance.
You were not unaware that their origins were wicked
and their malice ingrained,(C)
And that their dispositions would never change;
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