What Does Jeremiah 11:13 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The altar’s root names sacrifice, so the verse shows allegiance taking shape in what a community repeatedly offers.
THE MEANING
Your shared landscape is shaped by repeated allegiance: city after city and street after street become places where devotion is made visible. The verse names these altars as offerings to Baal and calls their object shameful, exposing what the community publicly honors.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that devotion is only inward or private: what a community serves becomes visible in the places and practices it repeats.
THE ROOT
מִזְבְּחוֹת
mizbeḥot
GROWS FROM
זבח
To slaughter or sacrifice.
“altars” in this verse is mizbeḥot. The altar’s name carries the same consonants as sacrifice: it is named for the act done there. Here those places multiply until the streets themselves are marked by offerings to Baal.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: To slaughter or sacrifice.
זָבַח
The verb shares the altar’s root, joining the built place to the act performed there.
zevaḥ: A sacrifice or sacrificial offering.
זֶבַח
This noun makes clear that an altar’s meaning is bound to what is offered upon it.
בַּעַל
baʿal
GROWS FROM
בעל
To own or exercise mastery; as a noun, an owner or lord.
Baal is also the Hebrew word for a master or owner, so the name carries a claim of possession. The verse’s many altars spread that claim through the public life of Judah.
ALSO GROWS
bāʿal: To own, rule, or exercise mastery.
בָּעַל
The verb shows the claim of mastery carried in the name Baal.
bəʿālîm: Owners or masters; also used for Baals.
בְּעָלִים
The plural form echoes the verse’s multiplication of gods across the cities.
מִסְפָּר
mispār
GROWS FROM
ספר
To count, enumerate, or recount.
“number” in this verse is mispār. The repeated count sets the cities beside their gods and the streets beside their altars. Allegiance is presented as a measurable pattern spread across the whole landscape.
ALSO GROWS
sāfar: To count or recount.
סָפַר
The verb makes the verse’s repeated numbering an act of enumeration.
səfîrāh: Counting or enumeration.
סְפִירָה
This noun carries the same counting root and underscores the verse’s one-to-one measure of places and altars.
THE PATTERN
What a community treats as divine becomes visible in the places and objects that fill its shared life.
For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.THE THREAD
An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.The altar מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbēaḥ) and the verb זָבַח (zāvaḥ), “to sacrifice,” share the root זבח, joining the place to the act performed there. Exodus directs the offering “unto me”; Jeremiah shows altars directed to Baal, revealing that an altar’s presence alone does not determine its allegiance.
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