6. in which parents murdered their own defenceless children. It was your will that our ancestors should destroy those people,
7. so that the land which you consider the most precious of all lands would be a suitable home for your people.
8. But even in this you showed mercy towards their enemies, since they too were human beings. You sent hornets ahead of your army, to destroy the enemy gradually.
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. 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.