Wisdom 12:7-9

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

⁷ so that the land most precious of all to you
might receive a worthy colony of the servants^[a] of God.
⁸ But even these you spared, since they were but mortals,
and sent wasps^[b] 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 animals or your stern word.