Jeremiah 13:23
New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
23 Can Ethiopians[a] change their skin
or leopards their spots?
Then also you can do good
who are accustomed to do evil.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 13:23 Or Nubians; Heb Cushites
Jeremiah 13:23
New English Translation
23 But there is little hope for you ever doing good,
you who are so accustomed to doing evil.
Can an Ethiopian[a] change the color of his skin?
Can a leopard remove its spots?[b]
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 13:23 tn This is a common proverb in English coming from this biblical passage. For cultures where it is not proverbial, perhaps it would be better to translate “Can black people change the color of their skin?” Strictly speaking these are “Cushites” inhabitants of a region along the upper Nile south of Egypt. The Greek text is responsible for the identification with Ethiopia. The term in Greek is actually an epithet meaning “burnt face.”
- Jeremiah 13:23 tn Heb “Can the Cushite change his skin or the leopard his spots? [Then] you also will be able to do good who are accustomed to do evil.” The English sentence has been restructured and rephrased in an attempt to produce some of the same rhetorical force the Hebrew original has in this context.
Jeremiah 13:23
Authorized (King James) Version
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?
then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
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