Jeremiah 13:23
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Is it possible for the skin of the Ethiopian to be changed, or the markings on the leopard? Then it might be possible for you to do good, who have been trained to do evil.
Webster's Revision
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
World English Bible
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
Clarke's Jeremiah 13:23 Bible Commentary
Can 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 the utmost difficulty to get a sinner, deeply rooted in vicious habits, brought to the knowledge of himself and God. But the expression does not imply that the thing is as impossible in a moral as it is in a natural sense: it only shows that it is extremely difficult, and not to be often expected; and a thousand matters of fact prove the truth of this. But still, what is impossible to man is possible to God. See the note on Jeremiah 13:27.
Barnes's Jeremiah 13:23 Bible Commentary
This 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.