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 appoints close friends as leaders over you, ones you yourself trained? Won’t labor pains seize you, as they do a woman in labor? 22And when you ask yourself, “Why have these things happened to me?” it is because of your great guilt that your skirts have been stripped off, your body exposed. Can the Cushite change his skin, or a leopard his spots? If so, you might be able to do what is good, you who are instructed in evil. 24I will scatter you like drifting chaff before the desert wind. 25This is your lot, what I have decreed for you — this is the Lord’s declaration — because you have forgotten me and trusted in lies.

Jeremiah 13:23 word by word

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

Words taken from the KJV.

• Can the Ethiopianכּוּשִׁיkûshîy · EthiopianH3569
• changeהָפַךְhâphak · to overturnH2015
• his skinעוֹר‛ôr · skinH5785
• or the leopardנָמֵרnâmêr · leopardH5246
• his spotsחֲבַרְבֻּרָהchăbarbûrâh · spotH2272
• mayיָכֹלyâkôl yâkôl · be ableH3201
• ye also do goodיָטַבyâţab · be goodH3190
• that are accustomedלִמֻּדlimmûd limmûd · discipleH3928
• to do evilרָעַעrâ‛a‛ · be evilH7489

Cross-references for Jeremiah 13:23

• Jeremiah 2:22Even if you wash with lye and use a great amount of bleach, the stain of your iniquity is still in front of me. This is the Lord God’s declaration.
• Jeremiah 5:3Lord, don’t your eyes look for faithfulness? You have struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They made their faces harder than rock, and they refused to return.
• Jeremiah 6:29The bellows blow, blasting the lead with fire. The refining is completely in vain; the evil ones are not separated out.
• Jeremiah 17:9The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable — who can understand it?
• Proverbs 27:22Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with grain, you will not separate his foolishness from him.
• Isaiah 1:5Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep on rebelling? The whole head is hurt, and the whole heart is sick.
• Matthew 19:24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
• Jeremiah 9:5Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to speak lies; they wear themselves out doing wrong.

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