Kethib

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Kethib (or Kethibh or Kethiv or Ketiv; Aramaic, כְּתִיב‎ or ܟܬܝܒ "[what is] written") is a term used to refer to the forms appearing in the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible as they were preserved by scribal tradition. Torah scrolls for use in public reading in synagogues contain only the consonantal text, but most other published editions of the Tanakh also contain a set of marginal notes along with the vowelization of the text, indicating when a word's consonants should be adjusted so as to conform to an accepted reading -- called the קְרִי‎ Qere, "(what is) read."

Such a change may also go unmarked in the textual notes if it is common enough for the reader to recognize it by only an adjustment of the vowels written on the consonants. For example, the form *הִוא‎ appears throughout the Torah. This is the result of the consonantal text bearing the letters הוא‎, which are normally pointed as הוּא‎ hu, which means "he." However, whenever the antecedent is feminine, the text has been marked הִוא‎ to instruct the reader to read it as הִיא‎ hi, which means "she."

This way of marking the text by adjusting the vowels is known as a qere perpetuum. Another example of an important qere perpetuum in the text of the Bible is the name of the God of Israel -- יהוה‎ (cf., Tetragrammaton) -- which is marked with the vowels of אֲדֹנָי‎ adonai (meaning "my Lord") rather than with its own vowels (sometimes with the vowels of אֱלֹהִים‎ elohim).

[edit] See also

• Qere
• Qere Perpetuum