Numbers 32:38
וְאֶת־נְבוֹ וְאֶת־בַּעַל מְעוֹן מֽוּסַבֹּת שֵׁם וְאֶת־שִׂבְמָה וַיִּקְרְאוּ בְשֵׁמֹת אֶת־שְׁמוֹת הֶעָרִים אֲשֶׁר בָּנֽוּ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
וְאֶת־נְב֞וֹ וְאֶת־בַּ֧עַל מְע֛וֹן מֽוּסַבֹּ֥ת שֵׁ֖ם וְאֶת־שִׂבְמָ֑ה וַיִּקְרְא֣וּ בְשֵׁמֹ֔ת אֶת־שְׁמ֥וֹת הֶעָרִ֖ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר בָּנֽוּ׃
καὶ τὴν Βεελμεών, περικεκυκλωμένας, καὶ Σεβαμά· καὶ ἐπωνόμασαν κατὰ τὰ ὀνόματα αὐτῶν τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν πόλεων ἃς ᾠκοδόμησαν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
et Nabo, et Baalmeon versis nominibus, Sabama quoque: imponentes vocabula urbibus, quas exstruxerunt.
Nebo, Baal-meón (a la cual le cambiaron el nombre) y Sibma. A todas las ciudades que reconstruyeron les pusieron nombres nuevos.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y á Nebo, y á Baal-meón, ( mudados los nombres), y á Sibma: y pusieron nombres á las ciudades que edificaron.
as well as Nebo and Baal-meon ( whose names were changed), and Sibmah. And they renamed the cities they rebuilt.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse lists three towns in Transjordan — Nebo, Baal-meon, and Sibmah — that were rebuilt by the Reubenites/Gadites, noting that Baal-meon had a "changed" name. It closes with a general statement that they gave new names to the cities they had built.
Key words
- muSabbot ("changed", H5437G) — hophal (causative-passive) participle, feminine plural, describing shem ("name") as having been altered; it marks Baal-meon specifically as a place whose name was not the original one.
- shem ("name", H8034) — singular noun, the object that underwent the change described by musabbot.
- vayyikre'u ("and they called", H7121H) — qal narrative form (vav-consecutive), continuing the story line; it introduces the general act of naming that follows the list of specific towns.
- shemot ("names", H8034) — feminine plural, used twice: once absolute ("by names") and once in construct form shemot ha'arim ("names of the cities"), linking the act of naming to the cities that were built.
- asher banu ("which they had built", H0834A + H1129) — relative clause with a qal perfect verb, marking completed construction prior to the renaming.
What the text says
The sentence begins as a continuation of a list (introduced by the conjunction ve, H9002) of towns taken and rebuilt: Nebo, Baal-meon, and Sibmah. Between Baal-meon and Sibmah, the text inserts the phrase musabbot shem ("name changed"), a passive participial construction that qualifies Baal-meon as a place whose name differs from an earlier one, without stating what that earlier name was or supplying an explicit relative pronoun — the participle functions almost adjectivally.
The clause then shifts to narrative mode with vayyikre'u ("and they called"), summarizing in general terms what happened to "the cities which they had built" (he'arim asher banu): the builders assigned new names to them. The repetition of shemot ("names") twice — first as the means ("by names") and then in construct with "the cities" — creates a doubling effect in Hebrew that emphasizes the act of naming itself, a nuance not easily preserved in translation.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders musabbot shem ("name changed") as περικεκυκλωμένας ("surrounded/encircled"), describing Baal-meon in terms of a physical feature (being walled or encircled) rather than a change of name. The Vulgate's versis nominibus ("names having been turned/changed") stays closer to the Hebrew sense of renaming. Modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) follow the Hebrew/Vulgate sense of a name change rather than the LXX's spatial description.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.