{12:1} O how good and gracious, Lord, is your spirit in all things!
{12:2} Therefore, those who wander afield, you correct, and, as to those who sin, you counsel them and admonish them, so that, having abandoned malice, they may believe in you, O Lord.
{12:3} For those ancient inhabitants of your holy land, who you abhorred,
{12:4} because they were doing works hateful to you, through unjust medicines and sacrifices,
{12:5} and the merciless murderers of their own sons, and the eaters of human entrails, and the devourers of blood apart from your community sacrament,
{12:6} and the sellers performing the ceremonies of helpless souls, you willed to destroy by the hands of our parents,
{12:7} so that they might worthily secure the sojourn of the children of God, in the land which is most beloved by you.
{12:8} Yet, so that you were lenient even to these men, you sent wasps, forerunners of your army, so that you might destroy them little by little,
{12:9} not because you were unable to subdue the impious under the just by war or by cruel beasts, or with a harsh word to exterminate them at once,
{12:10} but, in judging by degrees, you were giving them a place of repentance, not unaware that their nation is wicked, and their malice is inherent, and that their thinking could never be changed.
{12:11} For this offspring was accursed from the beginning. Neither did you, fearing anyone, give favor to their sins.
{12:12} For who will say to you, “What have you done?” Or who will stand against your judgment? Or who will come before you as a defender of unfair men? Or who will accuse you, if the nations perish, which you have made?
{12:13} For neither is there any other God but you, who has care of all, to whom you would show that you did not give judgment unjustly.
{12:14} Neither will king or tyrant inquire before you about those whom you destroyed.
{12:15} Therefore, since you are just, you order all things justly, considering it foreign to your virtue to condemn him who does not deserve to be punished.
{12:16} For your power is the beginning of justice, and, because you are Lord of all, you make yourself to be lenient to all.
{12:17} For you reveal power to those who do not believe you to be perfect in power, and you expose the arrogance of those who do not know you.
{12:18} Yet, you are the master of power, since you judge with tranquility, and since you administer us with great reverence; for it is close to you to be used whenever you will.
{12:19} But you have taught your people, through such works, that they must be just and humane, and you have made your sons to be of good hope, because in judging you provide a place for repentance from sins.
{12:20} For even if the enemies of your servants were deserving of death, you afflicted them with great attentiveness, providing a time and a place whereby they would be able to be changed from malice;
{12:21} with what diligence, then, have you judged your sons, whose parents you have given oaths and covenants in good faith!
{12:22} Therefore, while you give us discipline, you give our enemies a multiplicity of scourges, so that in judging we may think on your goodness, and when we are judged, we may hope for mercy.
{12:23} Therefore, also to these, who have lived their life irrationally and unjustly, through these things that they worshiped, you gave the greatest torments.
{12:24} And, indeed, they wandered for a long time in the way of error, valuing those things as gods, which are worthless even among animals, living in foolish irrational behavior.
{12:25} Because of this, you have given a judgment in derision, as if from foolish children.
{12:26} But those who have not been corrected by mockery and chiding, have experienced a judgment worthy of God.
{12:27} For among those who were indignant at their sufferings, which came through those things that they reputed to be gods, when they saw that they would be destroyed by these same things, those who formerly refused knowledge of him, now acknowledged the true God, and, because of this, the end of their condemnation came upon them.

{11:1} She directed their works in the hands of the holy prophet.
{11:2} They made a path through desolate areas, which were uninhabited, and set up their homes in remote places.
{11:3} They stood firm against the enemy, and vindicated themselves from their adversaries.
{11:4} They thirsted, and they called upon you, and water was given them out of the deepest rock, and respite from thirst out of the hard stone.
{11:5} For through water, their enemies had been punished, by the corruption of their drinking water; and so, among them, when the sons of Israel lacked the abundance they would have had, their enemies rejoiced;
{11:6} yet through water, when they were in need, it turned out well for them.
{11:7} For instead of a fountain, even everlasting in flow, you gave human blood to the unjust,
{11:8} and while they would be crushed into disgrace because of the murdering of infants, you unexpectedly gave your own abundant water,
{11:9} revealing through the thirst, which occurred at that time, how you would exalt your own and would kill their adversaries.
{11:10} For when they were being tested, and even when receiving merciful correction, they knew in what way, when your wrath judged the impious, they would suffer torments.
{11:11} For these, advising like a father, you approved; but the others, interrogating like a severe king, you condemned.
{11:12} For whether absent or present, they were tortured alike.
{11:13} For they had received double: weariness and groaning in the remembrance of things past.
{11:14} For when they paid attention to their punishments, to attend to their own benefit, they called to mind the Lord, admiring the end result.
{11:15} For though they showed scorn by throwing out distorted statements, in the end they were amazed at the result, but this is not the same as thirsting for justice.
{11:16} For according to the thinking of their irrational iniquity, because some, going astray, were worshiping mute serpents and worthless beasts, you sent upon them a multitude of mute beasts for vengeance,
{11:17} so that they might know that by whatever things a man sins, by the same also is he tormented.
{11:18} For it was not impossible for your all-powerful hand, which created the world from unknown material, to send forth upon them a multitude of bears, or fierce lions,
{11:19} or, in anger, beasts of a new kind, massive and strange, either breathing out a fiery vapor, or sending forth an odorous smoke, or shooting horrible sparks from their eyes;
{11:20} whereby, not only wounds would be able to destroy them, but also the very sight would kill them through fear.
{11:21} Yet, even without these, they could have been killed with one breath, suffering persecution of their own making and being scattered by your spirit of virtue; but you have ordered all things in size and number and weight.
{11:22} Though many are strong, you alone always overcome. And who will withstand the strength of your arm?
{11:23} For, like a tiny grain on a scale, just so is the world before you, and like a drop of dew before dawn, which descends upon the earth.
{11:24} But you are merciful to all, because you can do all, and you dismiss the sins of man because of repentance.
{11:25} For you love all things that are, and you hate nothing of the things you have made; for you would not have created or established anything that you hated.
{11:26} For how could anything endure, except by your will? Or what, having been called by you not to exist, would be preserved?
{11:27} Yet you spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord, who loves souls.