Wisdom 12:8-10

New Catholic Bible

^{8     [a]}But even these, since they were men, you spared,
    and you sent wasps as forerunners of your army
    to exterminate them little by little.
⁹ It was well within your power to have the godless vanquished in battle by the righteous
    or to destroy them in an instant by savage beasts or by one stern word.
¹⁰ But by carrying out your sentence in stages,
    you gave them the chance to repent.
You were well aware that they came from an evil stock,
    and that their wickedness was innate,
and that their way of thinking would never change,