Mussabot Shem = Surrounded by Towers

Yesterday in a certain waiting room I came across a book by Dr. Tzvi Betzer z"l, who was apparently a linguist, and who had passed away about 22 years ago, if I remember correctly. The book, dedicated in his memory, collected some (or perhaps all, I didn't check) of his various papers. Several caught my eye because they discussed topics that sounded relevant for some of my research interests. But one in particular seemed unusual. It was a short essay, more of a note, really, in terms of length, on the term "מסבות שם" (Mussabot Shem) which is typically translated something like "changed names". The term is used in Bamidbar 32:38 in reference to the Transjordanian cities captured by the Reuvenites and Gadites and resettled by their families.

As mentioned above, the term is usually understood to refer to the literal names of the cities having been changed by the tribes, because the names had idolatrous connotations. However, strangely enough, in most cases we don't actually learn the new names (e.g., Nevo and Ba'al Me'on are clearly idolatrous names). Extraordinary cases are Kenat which became Novach (albeit in the more northern Menashite territory) and, in my opinion, Divon, which became Divon-Gad.

Betzer raised two other issues, though I admit I didn't exactly understand one of them. The first issue he raised is that it's not indicated in Tanach that the two tribes settled their wives and children in fortified cities for protecttion. This is the issue I didn't understand, for how do we know that the cities they chose weren't fortified? The second issue, which poses a better question, is why is the same idea presented twice? To clarify, in verse 38 it says: "וְאֶת נְבוֹ וְאֶת בַּעַל מְעוֹן מוּסַבֹּת שֵׁם וְאֶת שִׂבְמָה וַיִּקְרְאוּ בְשֵׁמֹת אֶת שְׁמוֹת הֶעָרִים אֲשֶׁר בָּנוּ". The bolded sections are usually understood as "changed (their) names" and "and they gave names to the cities" respectively (see e.g. the above-linked Sefaria-provided translation). So, one wonders: Why was it necessary to state twice that the cities' names were changed?

Betzer explained that he once spoke with the noted educator and Tanach scholar Yehuda Kiel z"l (one of the authors of the Da'at Mikra commentary series), and Keel had mentioned that he had once seen Dr. Moshe Zeidel's personal Tanach. Zeidel z"l was a philologist and Tanach scholar, and one of Rav A. I. Kook's students. To him Rav Kook addressed some of his famous epistles, included his Torah and Science epistles (see e.g. here). Keel noted that on the phrase "מוסבות שם" in Bamidbar, Zeidel had noted simply "targum of Eretz Yisrael". This was a reference to the various targumic sources produced by Jews from the Land of Israel, including Targum Onkelos, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and Targum Neofiti. In the targumic translations of this verse, we see that the authors understood the term "מוסבות שם" (Mussabot Shem) not to mean "changed names" but "surrounded by towers"!

The word "mussabot" is also related to the root סו"ב, which means 'turn around', 'encircled', or sometimes 'changed'. But what of the tower? According to Betzer, there's some basis to argue that the word "Shem" sometimes meant "tower", as makes better sense in the verses in Shmuel 2:8:13, Beresheet 11:4, and Yeshayahu 56:5 (in the last one, note that "yad" in Hebrew also means monument, as in the came of Yad Avshalom). This explains why both phrases were used in the same verse - one indicates the fortified towers of the cities (which could protect the women and children) and the other indicates that names given to the cities.

(image taken from here)