5. What reasons did Jehovah give for his apparent desertion of Israel, and why did he call into the comparison the Cushite and the leopard?

⁵ The cause of the trouble with the Israelites was not superficial. Disregard for their covenant with the Rainmaker Jehovah had become deep-seated, also their contempt for his name and their mixing his pure form of worship with the religion of the pagan nations round about them. Not strange, then, that they were told: “‘Can a Cushite [Ethiopian or Nubian] change his skin? or a leopard its spots? You yourselves would also be able to do good, who are persons taught to do bad.

Jer. 13:23