DHK said:My interpretation gives no one any excuse.
It is not my interpretation, but the judgement that God through Jeremiah was pronouncing upon the nation of Israel. They were ripe for judgment because of their continual sin. They had not repented. They had not turned. The only way a person can change is by the grace of God. From birth they are born sinners, and that is what Jeremiah told them.
The Ethiopian was black from birth.
The leopard was spotted from birth.
They were evil from birth. It would take a miracle from God to change them.
Your interpretation makes God the author of sin. You believe God cursed man to be a sinner and that he has no choice but to sin, just as a leopard has no choice but to have spots, or an Ethiopian has no choice but to have dark skin.
You are directly blaming God for sin.
Why would Jeremiah condemn men for sinning if God cursed them to be sinners that could only sin? Absolutely nonsensical.
I see now that I am not debating with a rational person. Believe whatever you want.