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22 If you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” you should know that it is because of your great guilt that your skirt has been torn off, and you have been violated.

23 Can an Ethiopian[a] change the color of his skin?
Can a leopard change its spots?
Just as little can you, who are disciples of evil, do good.

24 I will scatter you like chaff blown by the desert wind.
25 This is your lot.
This is what I have assigned to you,
declares the Lord.
This will take place because you have forgotten me
and trusted in falsehood.
26 I myself will lift your skirt over your head,
so that your shame can be seen—
27 your adulteries, your lust-filled neighing,
and your shameless prostitution.
I have seen your detestable acts on the hills and in the countryside.
Woe to you, Jerusalem!
You are unclean.
After this, will you ever be clean again?

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 13:23 Hebrew Cushite. Cush was the territory just south of Egypt, present-day Sudan. Cushite refers to black Africans.

22 And if you say in your heart,
    ‘Why have these things happened to me?’
Because of the greatness of your iniquity your skirts are uncovered;
    your heels have endured violence.
23 Can a Cushite change his skin,
    or a leopard his spots?
Then you also will be able to do good,
    who are accustomed to doing evil.
24 And I will scatter them
    like stubble scattered by the wind of the desert.[a]
25 This is your lot,
    the portion of your measure from me,” declares[b] Yahweh,
“because you have forgotten me,
    and you have trusted in the lie.
26 So in turn I will bare your skirts over your face,
    and your shame will become visible.
27 Your adulteries, and your neighings,
    the shameful behavior of your fornications
on the hills in the countryside,
    I have seen your abominations.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
    How long will you continue to be unclean?[c]

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 13:24 Or “wilderness”
  2. Jeremiah 13:25 Literally “a declaration of”
  3. Jeremiah 13:27 Literally “Not you are clean after how long still”