⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers!^(A) Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?^(B)

³³ “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.^{(A) 34} You brood of vipers,^(B) how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks^(C) what the heart is full of.

²⁹ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets^(A) and decorate the graves of the righteous. ³⁰ And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.^{(B) 32} Go ahead, then, and complete^(C) what your ancestors started!^(D)

³³ “You snakes! You brood of vipers!^(E) How will you escape being condemned to hell?^{(F) 34} Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify;^(G) others you will flog in your synagogues^(H) and pursue from town to town.^{(I) 35} And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel^(J) to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah,^(K) whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.^(L)

³ Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. ⁴ When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand,^(A) they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.”^{(B) 5} But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.^{(C) 6} The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.^(D)