⁴ An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Then he left them and went away.^(A)

¹⁰ The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love a brother or sister.^(A)

⁴ Adulterers!^[a] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.^(A)

The Great Whore and the Beast

17 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great whore^[a] who is seated on many waters,^{(A) 2} with whom the kings of the earth have engaged in sexual immorality^[b] and with the wine of whose prostitution the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk.”^{(B) 3} So he carried me away in the spirit^[c] into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.^{(C) 4} The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her prostitution,^{(D) 5} and on her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the great, mother^[d] of whores^[e] and of earth’s abominations.”^(E)

⁴⁰ but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. ⁴¹ You are indeed doing what your father does.” They said to him, “We are not illegitimate children; we have one Father, God himself.”^{(A) 42} Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God, and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me.^{(B) 43} Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot accept my word. ⁴⁴ You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.^(C)

⁷ John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?^(A)

³³ You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape the judgment of hell?^[a]

³⁴ You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.^(A)