18 Say unto the king and to the queen: Humble yourselves, sit down low; for from your heads shall come down the crown of your magnificence. 19 The cities of the south are shut up, and there is none to open [them]; all Judah is carried away captive: it is wholly carried away captive. 20 Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north. Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock? 21 What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee, since thou thyself hast trained them to be princes in chief over thee? Shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?
22 And if thou say in thy heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts uncovered, [and] thy heels have suffered violence. 23 Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots? [Then] may ye also do good, who are accustomed to do evil. 24 And I will scatter them as stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness. 25 This shall be thy lot, thy measured portion from me, saith Jehovah; because thou hast forgotten me, and confided in falsehood. 26 Therefore will I also turn thy skirts over thy face, and thy shame shall be seen. 27 Thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy fornication, on the hills, in the fields,—thine abominations, have I seen. Woe unto thee, Jerusalem! Wilt thou not be made clean? after how long a time yet?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 13:18-27
Commentary on Jeremiah 13:18-27
(Read Jeremiah 13:18-27)
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 seek help from Him who is mighty to save.