“Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”
King James Version (KJV)
23:33 Ye serpents - Our Lord having now lost all hope of reclaiming these, speaks so as to affright others from the like sins.
Mt 23:33 [Ye] generations of vipers, how can ye escape? etc. Brood of vipers, full of venom, deadly as serpent, treacherous as the lurking serpent. So John had called them nearly four years before (Mt 3:7).