Wisdom 12:9-11

Good News Translation

⁹ You could have allowed the righteous to destroy those ungodly people in battle; you could have wiped them out immediately with wild animals or with one harsh command. ^10 (A)But instead, you carried out your sentence gradually, to give them a chance to repent, even though you knew that they came from evil stock, that they had been wicked since birth, and that they would never change their way of thinking. ¹¹ Their whole nation was cursed from the start, and though you had not punished them for their sins, it was not because you were afraid of anyone.