Vipers

Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the young lion shall browse together,
with a little child to guide them.
The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,
together their young shall rest;
the lion shall eat hay like the ox.
The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,
and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
–Isaiah 11:1-10

When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees
coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers!
Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.
And do not presume to say to yourselves,
‘We have Abraham as our father.’
For I tell you,
God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees.
Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit
will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
—Matthew 3:1-12

O wolf, come be a guest: Your host the lamb
will see you want for nothing.  Cow and bear,
come nurse together, cub and calf and dam.
The child will lay his hand on the adder’s lair.

The child will lay his hand on the viper’s brood,
and predator and prey shall break his bread,
an end at last to every ancient feud.
The withered stump shall blossom, though long dead.

The harvest comes, the fall before the feast:
The tares shall bear good seed, the thorn trees fruit,
and many come from the west and from the east.
His axe is laid already at the root.

Though we shall fall before him in his hour,
yet from the dust lift up your head and see
the fearsome lions grazing by his power.
All nature is made new, and so are we.

Come, vipers, come and take the infant’s hand.
As death itself, we shall have no more sting.
Upon our bellies we have crawled the land,
but like the angels we shall rise and sing.

Identificatie Titel(s): Kerstkaart van Henri Verstijnen Verde op uw wegen (titel op object) Objecttype: kerstkaart Objectnummer: RP-P-2018-286-18 Opschriften / Merken: datum Vervaardiging Vervaardiger: prentmaker: Henri Verstijnen (vermeld op object) Plaats vervaardiging: Nederland Datering: dec-1935 Materiaal en Techniek Fysieke kenmerken: houtsnede op transparant papier Materiaal: papier transparant papier Techniek: houtsnede Afmetingen: blad: hoogte 226 mm × breedte 150 mm Onderwerp Wat: trees: palm-tree, beasts of prey, predatory animals: lion, lamb Wie: Henri Verstijnen Verwerving en rechten: Verwerving: onbekend 2018 Copyright: Publiek domein By Rijksmuseum – http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.694256, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=151291177