4. The others deserved to be robbed of light and to be locked up in darkness. After all, they had kept your children locked up, even though it was through them that the never-ending light of the Law was to be given to the world.
5. So you swept away in judgment a huge number of the children of those who had sought to kill off your holy ones’ children (though one child, who was exposed to die, was saved!). You destroyed the rest by overwhelming them with water.
6. You had already alerted our fathers to that night well in advance. You did so in order that our fathers might rejoice and put their whole trust in the promises they had been given.
7. Your people fully expected that those who always do what is right would be delivered, while their enemies would be destroyed.
8. In the same way that you punished those who opposed your people, in just this way you called your people out of that land and gave them great honor.
9. Your holy children offered secret sacrifice of the very best that they had. They were all of one mind as they carried out the Law, which had come from God, that the holy people were to share good things as well as experience dangers together, while already singing the praises of their ancestors.
10. In contrast, the loud moaning of their enemies was a jarring and miserable sound. It rose up and could be heard everywhere as they mourned their dead children.
11. The same judgment fell on both slave and ruler. Both were punished together. The lowest person and the king suffered the same thing.
12. Countless bodies lay around, united together by a common name: death. There weren’t even enough of the living left to bury the dead! In one fleeting moment, their most valued children were destroyed.
13. Because of their misguided casting of spells and drug use, they didn’t believe until it was too late.As a result, all their oldest males were destroyed. It was only then that they acknowledged your people to be your children.
14. It was then, while everything was wrapped in a gentle silence, and half a night had already passed,
15. that your all-powerful word had leaped down from heaven, the royal throne. Like a fierce warrior, he had entered the land that was marked for destruction.