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

21The Lord will choose other people to rule over you. They are people that you wanted to be your friends, but now they will have power over you. So what will you say about that? You will be afraid and in much pain, like a woman who is giving birth to a baby. 22You may ask, “Why are these things happening to me?” It is because of your many terrible sins. Like an adulteress, they have torn off your dress to make you ashamed. You have done evil things for a long time. So you cannot now start to do good things. Can anyone change the colour of his skin? Can a leopard remove the marks on its body? No! And you cannot change yourselves either.’ 24The Lord says, ‘I will blow you away, as a hot desert wind blows away straw. 25That is how I have decided to punish you. It is what you deserve because you have forgotten me. You have trusted in false gods.

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 2:22You may use strong soap to make yourselves clean. But I still see the dirt of your sins.’ That is what the Almighty Lord says.
• Jeremiah 5:3Lord, you want people to be honest and true. You have punished your people, but they did not feel any pain. You nearly destroyed them, but they still refuse to change. Their minds have become as hard as rock. They refuse to turn back to you.
• Jeremiah 6:29A very hot fire can remove the dirt from silver and make it pure. I punish my people to make them pure, but it is useless. There are too many wicked people, so I cannot make them pure.
• Jeremiah 17:9A person's own mind deceives him, more than anything else does. Nobody can change it to be better. Nobody completely understands it.
• Proverbs 27:22Even if you beat a fool with a big stick, as hard as you beat grain, you will never remove all his silly ideas.
• Isaiah 1:5You continue to fight against God. Why do you do that? God will continue to punish you. You are weak and you hurt all over. Your mind and your body have great pain.
• Matthew 19:24The hole in a needle is very small. A camel cannot go through it! But I tell you, it is even more difficult than that for a rich person to let God rule in their life.’
• Jeremiah 9:5They deceive each other, and they never tell the truth. They have taught their tongues to speak lies. They love to do bad things and they cannot stop themselves.

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