1. for your imperishable spirit is in all things!
2. Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little,warn them, and remind them of the sins they are committing,that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, Lord!
3. For truly, the ancient inhabitants of your holy land,
4. whom you hated for deeds most odious—works of sorcery and impious sacrifices;
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;