Can the leopard change its spots? Jeremiah asks it of a people so used to doing wrong that they cannot simply decide to do right: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” Elsewhere the leopard is a threat. Jeremiah pictures one watching over a city’s gates, and in Hosea the LORD says he will be to his people “as a leopard by the way.” Isaiah then flips the image into peace, where the leopard lies down beside the young goat and a little child leads the animals. Read Isaiah 11:6-9 for that hope.
4 verses
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:
Matthew George Easton, 1897
(Heb. namer, so called because spotted, Cant. 4:8), was that great spotted feline which anciently infested the mountains of Syria, more appropriately called a panther (Felis pardus). Its fierceness (Isa. 11:6), its watching for its prey (Jer. 5:6), its swiftness (Hab. 1:8), and the spots of its skin (Jer. 13:23), are noticed. This word is used symbolically (Dan. 7:6; Rev. 13:2).
William Smith, 1884
(Heb. namer) is invariably given by the Authorized Version as the translation of the Hebrew word, which occurs in the seven following passages: (Solomon 4:8; Isaiah 11:6; Jeremiah 5:6; 13:23; Daniel 7:6; Hosea 13:7); Habb 1:8 Leopard occurs also in Ecclus. 28:23 and in (Revelation 13:2) From (Solomon 4:8) we learn that the hilly ranges of Lebanon were in ancient times frequented by these animals. They are now not uncommonly seen in and about Lebanon and the southern maritime mountains of Syria. Under the name namer , which means "spotted," it is not improbable that another animal, namely the cheetah (Gueparda jubata), may be included; which is tamed by the Mohammedans of Syria, who employ it in hunting the gazelle.