Jeremiah 13:23

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. 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 ()....

God declares in this verse, that the people were so hardened in their wickedness, that there was no hope of their repentance. This is the sum of what is said. But it was a very bitter reproof for the Prophet to say that his own nation were past hope — that they had so entirely given themselves up to their vices that they were no longer healable. But he uses a comparison_, _— _Can the Ethiopian, _(94) he says, _change his skin? _Blackness is inherent in the skin of the Ethiopians, as it is well known. Were they then to wash themselves a hundred times daily, they could not put off their blackness. The same also must be said of leopards or panthers, and we know that these animals are besprinkled with spots. Such then is the spotted character of the leopard or panther, (95) that whatever might be done to him he would still retain his color. We now then see what the Prophet means — that the J...

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 our own. But Almighty grace is able to change the Ethiopian's skin. Neither natural depravity, nor strong habits of sin, form an obstacle to the working of God, the new-creating Spirit. The Lord asks of Jerusalem, whether she is determined not be made clean. If any poor slave of sin feels that he could as soon change his nature as master his headstrong lusts, let him not despair; for things impossible to men are possible with God. Let us then se...

Verse Jeremiah 13:23. _CAN THE ETHIOPIAN CHANGE HIS SKIN_] Can a _black_, at his own pleasure, change the _colour_ 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 prov...

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....

EXPOSITION The chapter falls into two parts—the one describing a divinely commanded action of the prophet, symbolical of the approaching rejection of the Jewish people, the other announcing in literal language the ruin especially of the king and the queen-mother, and emphasizing the inveterate corruption which rendered such a blow necessary. The mention of the queen-mother (see Jeremiah 13:18) renders it probable that Jehoiachin is the king under whom the prophecy was composed. It is true that other kings besides Jehoiachin ascended the throne in the lifetime of their mother; but the express and repeated mention of the queen-mother in the account of Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:12, 2 Kings 24:15; comp....

CAN THE ETHIOPIAN CHANGE HIS SKIN?.... Or, "the Cushite"; either, as the Arabic version, the "Abyssine", the inhabitant of the eastern Ethiopia; properly an Ethiopian, as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it; or, the "Chusean Arabian"; the inhabitant of Arabia Chusea, which was nearer Judea than the other Ethiopia, and better known, and which were of a dark complexion. The Targum renders it, the Indian; and so does the Syriac version. In the Misna i mention is made of Indian garments, with which the high priest was clothed on the day of atonement; upon which the gloss k is, that they were of linen of the country of India; and which is the land of Cush (or Ethiopia), as Jonathan Ben Uzziel interprets Jeremiah 13:23 "can the Cushite, the Indian, change his skin?'' and it is highly probable, that, in the time of Jeremiah, no other India was known by

CHAPTER 13 Signs, Warnings, and Exhortations _ 1. The linen girdle and the filled bottles (Jeremiah 13:1) _ 2. Hear and give glory (Jeremiah 13:15) 3. The justice of the judgment (Jeremiah 13:22) Jeremiah 13:1. The prophet enacts a sign, that of the linen girdle. After he had put on the girdle, he was told to hide it in a hole of the rock of the Euphrates. After many days, he was commanded to dig for the girdle. It was found marred and profitable for nothing. Was this only a vision, or did the prophet actually make the long journey to the Euphrates and then repeat it after many

JERUSALEM'S SHAME. This prophecy, as perhaps others in this chapter, would suit the position of affairs under Jehoiakim, after Carchemish (605). Jerusalem is asked concerning the welfare of her people, in the day of invasion by the foe from the north (Jeremiah 4:6, etc.: here of the Babylonians). Jeremiah 13:21 should read, When he shall set over thee as head those whom thou hast thyself taught to be friends unto thee, _i.e_. those who have been courted as friends are now become masters. Her anguish and shame are merited; a change seems hopeless, since habit has become second nature (Jeremiah 13:23). Ruin is inevitable (Jeremia

CAN... ? Figure of speech _Erotesis_ and _Paroemia._. ACCUSTOMED. schooled, or trained....