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;
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.
12. For who can say to you, “What have you done?”or who can oppose your decree?Or when peoples perish, who can challenge you, their maker;or who can come into your presence to vindicate the unrighteous?
13. For neither is there any god besides you who have the care of all,that you need show you have not unjustly condemned;
14. Nor can any king or prince confront you on behalf of those you have punished.