The Massorah (Ap. 30), i.e. the small writing in the margins of the standard Hebrew codices, as shown in the plate on p. 32, consists of a concordance of words and phrases, &c., safeguarding the Sacred Text.  A note in the Massorah against several passages in the manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible state :  "This is one of the Eighteen Emendations of the Sopherim," or words to that effect.

Complete lists of these emendations are found in the Massorah of most of the model or standard codices of the Hebrew Bible, and these are not always identical; so that the total number exceeds eighteen :  from which it would appear that these examples are simply typical. The Siphri (*1) adduces seven passages; the Yalkut (*2), ten; the Mechiltha (*3), eleven; the Tanchuma (*4), seventeen; while the St. Petersburg Codex gives two passages not included in any other list (Mal. 1:12; 3:9; see below).

These emendations were made at a period long before Christ, before the Hebrew text had obtained its present settled form, and these emendations affect the Figure called Anthropopatheia.  See. Ap. 6.

The following is a list of the eighteen "Emendations," together with eight others not included in the official lists.  Particulars will be found on consulting the notes on the respective passages.

• Gen. 18:22.
• Num. 11:15.
• Num. 12:12.
• 1Sam. 3:13.
• 2Sam. 12:14.
• 2Sam. 16:12.
• 1Kings 12:16.
• 1Kings 21:10.
• 1Kings 21:13.
• 2Chron. 10:16.
• Job 1:5.
• Job 1:11.
• Job 2:5.
• Job 2:9.
• Job 7:20.
• Job 32:3.
• Ps. 10:3.
• Ps. 106:20.
• Ecc. 3:21.
• Jer. 2:11.
• Lam. 3:20.
• Ezek. 8:17.
• Hos. 4:7.
• Hab. 1:12.
• Zech. 2:8 (12).
• Mal. 1:13.
• Mal. 3:9.