5 These merciless murderers of children,devourers of human flesh,and initiates engaged in a blood ritual,
6 and parents who took with their own hands defenseless lives,You willed to destroy by the hands of our ancestors,
7 that the land that is dearest of all to youmight receive a worthy colony of God’s servants.
8 But even these you spared, since they were but mortalsand sent wasps as forerunners of your armythat they might exterminate them by degrees.
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;
10 But condemning them by degrees, you gave them space for repentance.You were not unaware that their origins were wickedand their malice ingrained,And that their dispositions would never change;
11 for they were a people accursed from the beginning.Neither out of fear for anyonedid you grant release from their sins.