Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/90

 the opinion of the Jewish critics, they are to be preferred to the, i.e. what is written in the text, and are actually to be read instead of it.

On this account the vowels of the marginal reading (the Qerê) are placed under the consonants of the text, and in order to understand both readings properly, the vowels in the text must be applied to the marginal reading, while for the reading of the text (the Kethîbh) its own vowels are to be used. Thus in  occurs in the text, in the margin. Read (or according to Jewish tradition ) in the text, in the margin. A small circle or asterisk in the text always refers to the marginal reading.

2. Words or consonants which are to be passed over in reading, and are therefore left unpointed, are called, e.g.  ,  ,. Conversely, words not contained in the text, but required by the Masora (as indicated by the insertion of their vowels), are called, e.g. ,. See further Strack,, p. 85; , §§ 62, 64; Blau, , p. 49 ff.

3. In the case of some very common words, which are always to be read otherwise than according to the Kethîbh, it has not been considered necessary to place the Qerê in the margin, but its vowels are simply attached to the word in the text. This occurs in the Pentateuch in  (Qerê ) wherever  stands for the feminine, and in  (Kethîbh , Qerê ) always, except in  (but the Sam. text always has , ). The ordinary explanation of this supposed archaism, on the analogy of Greek and, our child, is inadequate, since there is no trace elsewhere of this epicene use;  for  is rather a survival of a system of orthography in which a final vowel was written defectively, as in ; cf. .&mdash;Other instances are: (Q.)  &c., see the, and Baer and Delitzsch, , p. 84, and below, note to ;  (Q.), properly ;  (Q.), or (after ) ; (Q.) properly   (cf. , and , note); on ,  for , , see , end.

4. The masoretic apparatus accompanying the biblical text is divided into (a), consisting of (α) on the upper and lower margins of MSS.; (β)  between and on the right and left of the columns;