¹ For your immortal spirit is in all things.

² Therefore you correct little by little those who trespass and remind and warn them of the things by which they sin that they may be freed from wickedness and put their trust in you, O Lord.

Sins of the Canaanites

³ Those who used to live in your Holy Land

⁴ you hated for their detestable practises, 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 pagan cult,

⁶ these parents who murder helpless lives, you purposed 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 spared, since they were but men, and you sent 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 fearsome 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 left them unpunished for their sins.

God Is Sovereign

¹² For who will say, “What have you done?” Or will resist your judgement? Who will accuse you for the destruction of nations that you made? Or who will come before you to plead as an advocate for the unrighteous? 

¹³ For neither is there any God besides you, whose care is for all, to whom you should prove that you have not judged unjustly;

¹⁴ nor can any king or monarch confront you about those whom you have punished.

¹⁵ You are righteous and rule all things righteously, deeming it alien to your power to condemn him who does not deserve to be punished.

¹⁶ For your strength is the source of righteousness, and your sovereignty over all causes you to spare all.

¹⁷ For you show your strength when men doubt the completeness of your power, and you rebuke any insolence among those who know it.

¹⁸ You are sovereign in strength but you judge with mildness, and with great forbearance you govern us; for you have power to act whenever you choose.

God’s Lessons for Israel

¹⁹ Through such works you have taught your people that the one who is righteous must be kind, and you have filled your sons with good hope, because you give repentance for sins.

²⁰ For if you punished with such great care and indulgence the enemies of your servants and those deserving of death, granting them time and opportunity to give up their wickedness,

²¹ with what strictness you have judged your sons, to whose fathers you gave oaths and covenants full of good promises!

²² So while chastening us you scourge our enemies ten thousand times more, so that we may meditate upon your goodness when we judge, and when we are judged we may expect mercy.

Punishment of the Egyptians

²³ Therefore those who in folly of life lived unrighteously you tormented through their own abominations.

²⁴ For they went far astray on the paths of error, accepting as gods those animals that even their enemies despised; they were deceived like foolish infants.

²⁵ Therefore, as to unreasoning children, you sent your judgement to mock them.

²⁶ But those who have not heeded the warning of gentle rebukes will experience the deserved judgement of God.

²⁷ For when in their suffering they became incensed at those creatures that they had thought to be gods, being punished by means of them, they saw and recognized as the true God him whom they had before refused to know. Therefore the utmost condemnation came upon them.