Matthew 23:33

“You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?”

Jesus then depicts all their attempts to appear righteous as simply indicating that like snakes and vipers who are concerned to escape from danger, their concern is to escape the judgment of Gehenna. The picture is based on Matthew 3:7, and the snakes escaping from the cornfields as the reapers get to work. Compare also Matthew 12:34. The psalmists likened men to vipers because of the venom of their mouths (Psalms 58:4; Psalms 140:3) and because of their deafness in the face of entreaty (Psalms 58:4), while in the blessing of Jacob the serpent and the adder are pictured as lying in the way waiting to bite their victims and bring them crashing down from their mounts (Genesis 49:17). Thus Jesus is likening them to their fathers, they are venomous and deaf, and deceitfully waylay the unwary, and therefore have little hope of avoiding Gehenna.