“For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal.”
My Notes
What Does Jeremiah 11:13 Mean?
God catalogs Judah's idolatry with mathematical precision: "according to the number of thy cities were thy gods... according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars." Every city had its own god. Every street had its own altar. The proliferation of idols had reached the point where there were as many gods as postal codes and as many altars as street corners.
The "shameful thing" (bosheth, meaning shame or disgrace) is used as a substitute for Baal's name—a linguistic choice that replaces the idol's identity with its true nature: shame. The altars that Judah built to Baal were, in God's language, altars to shame. What they called worship, God called disgrace.
The multiplication of gods and altars represents spiritual chaos—a society where every neighborhood has a different deity and every street offers a different altar. There's no unified devotion, no coherent theology, no shared commitment. Just a marketplace of gods competing for customers. The result isn't religious freedom. It's spiritual anarchy.
Reflection Questions
- 1.How many 'gods' are you serving—different sources of identity, meaning, and security for different areas of your life?
- 2.Does the modern proliferation of spiritual options look like freedom to you, or like Judah's 'altar on every street corner'?
- 3.God calls Baal altars 'shameful things.' What might He call the things you've built altars to in your life?
- 4.What would it look like to have one God for every part of your life rather than a different 'god' for each domain?
Devotional
As many gods as cities. As many altars as streets. Every neighborhood had its own deity. Every block had its own shrine. Judah didn't just dabble in idolatry—they industrialized it. The marketplace of gods was as dense as the housing market.
God's tone is almost incredulous: do you realize how many alternatives you've created? You didn't just choose one false god—you chose them all. You didn't just build one altar—you built one on every street corner. The abundance of options you created didn't produce wisdom. It produced chaos. A society with a god on every corner is a society with no actual God at all.
This feels uncomfortably modern. The proliferation of spiritual options in our culture—a different guru for every mood, a different philosophy for every life stage, a different source of meaning for every season—mirrors what Judah built on their streets. We don't call them altars, but the function is the same: a shrine on every corner offering a different kind of worship, a different promise, a different identity.
God calls these altars "shameful." Not because spiritual seeking is wrong, but because the multiplication of false gods is the opposite of finding the true one. When you have a god for every city and an altar for every street, you have everything except what you actually need: the one God who is the same on every corner.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Therefore pray not thou for this people,.... If for a remnant among them, yet not for the body of the people; and if for…
That shameful thing - i. e., Baal; public establishment of idolatry, such as actually took place in the reign of…
This paragraph, which contains so much of God's wrath, might very well be expected to follow upon that which goes next…
Gi. from considerations of style makes these vv. the work of a later hand. The last two vv. much resemble ch. Jer 2:27…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture