h. The second class {insertions directed), which com- prises entire icords that have been omitted from the text, exhibits ten such instances which occur in the Hebrew Bible, as follows : Judg. xx, 13 ; Euth iii, 5, 17; 2 Sam. viii, 3; xvi, 23; xviii, 20; 2 Kings xix, 31, 37; Jer. xxxi, 38 ; 1, 29. Besides being noted in the mar- ginal glosses on the respective passages, these omissions are also given in the INIasorah on Deut. i and Ruth iii, IG. Tliey are also enumerated in the Talmud (Tract Sopkerim, vi, 8, and in Nedarim, 37 b). In Nedurim, however, the passage which refers to this subject is as follows:' "The insertion of words in the text ("pi^p piPD Xbl) is exhibited in mS [2 Sam. viii, 3]; C-iX [ibid, xvi, 23] ; Cl"'S3 [Jer. xxxi, 38] ; nb [ibid.
I, 21)]; PX [Ruth ii, 11]; ■^bs [ibid, iii, 5, 17];" thus omitting four instances, viz. Judg. xx, 13 ; 2 Sam. xviii, 20 ; 2 Kings xix, 31, 37, and adding one, viz., Ruth ii,
II, which is neither given by the Masorah nor in <S'o- pherim.
This class of variations is indicated by a small circle or asterisk placed in the text with the vowel signs of tlic word which is wanting, referring to the margin, where the word in question is given. Thus, for in- stance, in Judg. XX, 13, where, according to the Keri, the word ■'D^ is omitted, the Kethib is "("S'^pn ° ^3X i<b^ upon which the marginal gloss remarks N^T "i^p *i;3
c. Of the third class (omissions suggested), exhibiting entire words which have crept into the text, there are eight instances, as follows : Ruth iii, 12 ; 2 Sam. xiii, 33 ; XV, 21 ; 2 Kings v, 18; Jer. xxxviii, lO; xxxix, 12; Ii, 3 ; Ezek. xlviii, 16. These variations are not only noted in the marginal glosses on the respective passages, but are also given in the !Masorah on Ruth iii, 12. The passage in Nedarim, 27 b, which speaks of this class of variations, remarking, "Words which are found in the text, but are not read ("p"'^p xbl "pTs), are exhib- ited in X3 [2 Kings v, 18]; nXT [Jer. xxxii, 11]; "j'lTi [ibid. Ii, 3]; ^li^n [Ezek. xlviii, IG] ; tX [Ruth iii, 12]," omits 2 Sam. xiii, 33 ; xv, 21 ; and Jer. xxxviii.
16; xxxix, 12; and adds Jer. xxxii, 11, which does not exist in the Masorah ; whilst Sopherim, vi, 9, which re- marks ^izn --,-11 bx" nip-23 "I'lTXa ■pSlSX, refer- ring to 2 Sam. xiii, 33 ; Jer. xxxix, 12 ; 2 Sam. xv, 21 ; Ruth iii, 12 ; Jer. Ii, 3 ; p^zek. xlviii, IG ; omits 2 Kings V, 18, and Jer. xxxviii, 16.
This class of variations is not uniformly indicated in the different editions of the Bible. Generally the word in question has no vowel signs, but an asterisk or small circle is put over it, referring to the margin, where it is simply remarked ''•^p xbl n"'n3, written [m the textr\, hut not \^to 6e] read; in one or two instances, however, the word itself is repeated in the margin, as in 2 Kings v, 18, where we have it "^ip xbl aipD X3, [the word] X3 [isl ivritten [in the text'\,hut [is'] not [to be] read.
II. Number and Position of the Keri and Kethib. — A great difference of opuiion prevails about the number and position of these various readings. The Talmud, as we have shown above, and the early commentators, mention variations which do not exist in the Keris and Ketlubs of the ^Masorah. This, however, is beyond the aim of the [iresent article, which is to investigate the Keri and Kethib as exhibited in the ]\Iasorah and in the editions of the Hebrew Bible. From a careful perusal and collation of the IMasorah, as printed in the Rabbinic Bibles, we tind the following to be the number of the Keris and Kethibs in each book, according to the order of the Hebrew Bible :
.... 24
Ilabakkuk
2
VI
Zephaiiiah
Ilaggai
Zecliixriah
Malachi
1
Leviticus
5
11
1
... . 7
Deuteronomy
Joshua
.... 24 .... .SS 22
1
74
Judges
Proverbs
Job
Son" of Song.s
70
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
T.S
.... 99 49
54
5
1 Kin"?
Ruth
13
SO
.... 28
Isaiali
Jeremiah
.... 5.5
.... ]4S .... U3 6
Ecclesiastes
Esther
11
14
Ezekiel
Hosea
Pauiel
Ezra
129
33
Joel
Amos
.... 1 3
Nehemiah
1 Chronicles
28
41
Obadiah
.... 1
4 4
39
Micah
Nahum
Total
.... 1353
The disparity between Abrabanel's calculations about the number of Keris and Kethibs, leading him to the conclusion that the Pentateuch has 65, Jeremiah 81, and 1 and 2 Samuel 138 (Introduction to Jeremiah), and the numbers which we have stated as existing in these books, is easily accounted for when it is remembered that this erudite commentator died fifteen j-ears before the laborious Jacob b.-Chajim collated and published the Masorahs on the Hebrew Scriptures, and therefore had no opportunity of consulting them carefully. But we lind it far more difficult to account for the serious difference in the calculations of later writers and our re- sults, as may be seen from the table on the following page.
For the collation of Bomberg's Bible, the Plantin Bi- ble, and the Antwerp Bible, we are indebted to the ta- bles exhibited in Cappellus's Critica Sacra, p. 70, and Walton's /'?-oZe5ro?He«a (ed. Cantabrigire, 1828, i, 473) ; and though we have been able by our arrangement to cor- rect their blunder in representing Elias Levita as sepa- rating the Five Megilloth from the Hagiographa, and giving the number of Keris to be 329 exclusive of the JMegilloth, yet we were obliged to describe the jMegU- loth apart from the Hagiographa, to which they belong acciinling to the Jewish order of the Canon. Elias Le- vita's own words on the numbers are as follows: "I counted the Keris and Kethibs several times, and found that they were in all 848 ; of these, 65 are in the Penta- teuch, 454 in the Prophets, and 329 in the Hagiographa, It is surprising that there should only be 65 in the Pen- tateuch, 22 of which refer to the single word n"1"3, which