Jeremiah 13:23

Jeremiah 13:23 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
• New International Version (NIV)Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.
• English Standard Version (ESV)Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.
• New King James Version (NKJV)Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.

Context of Jeremiah 13:23

21What will you say when He sets over you close allies whom you yourself trained? Will not pangs of anguish grip you, as they do a woman in labor? 22And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” It is because of the magnitude of your iniquity that your skirts have been stripped off and your body has been exposed. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Neither are you able to do good— you who are accustomed to doing evil. 24“I will scatter you like chaff driven by the desert wind. 25This is your lot, the portion I have measured to you,” declares the LORD, “because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood.

Jeremiah 13:23 word by word

הֲיַהֲפֹ֤ךְ כּוּשִׁי֙ עוֹר֔וֹ וְנָמֵ֖ר חֲבַרְבֻּרֹתָ֑יו גַּם־אַתֶּם֙ תּוּכְל֣וּ לְהֵיטִ֔יב לִמֻּדֵ֖י הָרֵֽעַ׃Read the interlinear

• Can the Ethiopianכּוּשִׁיkûshîy · EthiopianH3569
• changeהָפַךְhâphak · to overturnH2015
• his skinעוֹר‛ôr · skinH5785
• or the leopardנָמֵרnâmêr · leopardH5246
• his spotsחֲבַרְבֻּרָהchăbarbûrâh · spotH2272
• Neitherגַּםgam · alsoH1571
• are youאַתֶּם'attâh 'attâ 'ath 'attîy 'attem 'atten 'attênâh 'attênnâh · you(m.p.)H859
• ableיָכֹלyâkôl yâkôl · be ableH3201
• to do goodיָטַבyâţab · be goodH3190
• you who are accustomedלִמֻּדlimmûd limmûd · discipleH3928
• to doing evilרָעַעrâ‛a‛ · be evilH7489

Cross-references for Jeremiah 13:23

• Jeremiah 2:22Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD.
• Jeremiah 5:3O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.
• Jeremiah 6:29The bellows blow fiercely, blasting away the lead with fire. The refining proceeds in vain, for the wicked are not purged.
• Jeremiah 17:9The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
• Proverbs 27:22Though you grind a fool like grain with mortar and a pestle, yet his folly will not depart from him.
• Isaiah 1:5Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted.
• Matthew 19:24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
• Jeremiah 9:5Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity.

Commentaries on Jeremiah 13:23

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 23Can the Ethiopian change his skin - Can a black, at his own pleasure, change the color of his skin? Can the leopard at will change the variety of his spots? These things are natural to them, and they cannot be altered; so sin, and especially your attachment to idolatry, is become a second nature; and we may as well expect the Ethiopian to change his skin, and the leopard his spots, as you to do good, who have been accustomed to do evil. It is a matter of…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 23This verse answers the question, May not Judah avert this calamity by repentance? No: because her sins are too inveterate. By the Ethiopian (Hebrew: Cushite) is meant not the Cushite of Arabia but of Africa, i. e., the negro.Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 18-27Verses 18-27 Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were shapen in it, so that we cannot get clear of it by any power of…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 23the Ethiopian: People cannot choose their skin color, just like a leopard cannot choose its spots. Similarly, God's people were born trapped by evil. They could not change by themselves and refused to let the Lord change them.Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2323. Ethiopian--the Cushite of Abyssinia. Habit is second nature; as therefore it is morally impossible that the Jews can alter their inveterate habits of sin, nothing remains but the infliction of the extremest punishment, their expatriation (Jr 13:24).Read the comment

Topics related to Jeremiah 13:23

• Character
• Depravity of Man
• Ethiopia
• Idolatry
• Israel, Prophecies Concerning
• Leopard
• Regeneration

In the dictionaries

• Ethiopian
• Ethiopia, Ethiopian
• Appear
• Ethiopia
• Leopard
• Pity
• Principality
• Change
• Cushite Woman; Ethiopian Woman
• Hosea

Commentaries on Jeremiah 13

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings