The Wisdom of Solomon 12:3-11

[3] Those who dwelt of old in your holy land
[4] you did hate for their detestable practices,
their works of sorcery and unholy rites,
[5] their merciless slaughter of children,
and their sacrificial feasting on human flesh and blood.
These initiates from the midst of a heathen cult,
[6] these parents who murder helpless lives,
you did will to destroy by the hands of our fathers,
[7] that the land most precious of all to you
might receive a worthy colony of the servants of God.
[8] But even these you did spare, since they were but men,
and did send wasps as forerunners of your army,
to destroy them little by little,
[9] though you were not unable to give the ungodly
into the hands of the righteous in battle,
or to destroy them at one blow by dread wild
beasts or your stern word.
[10] But judging them little by little you gave
them a chance to repent,
though you were not unaware that their origin was evil
and their wickedness inborn,
and that their way of thinking would never change.
[11] For they were an accursed race from the beginning,
and it was not through fear of anyone that
you did leave them unpunished for their sins.