Editing Masoretic Text (section)

===Scribal emendations – ''Tikkune Soferim''===
{{main|Tiqqun soferim}}
Early rabbinic sources, from around 200&nbsp;CE, mention several passages of Scripture in which the conclusion is inevitable that the ancient reading must have differed from that of the present text. The explanation of this phenomenon is given in the expression "Scripture has used euphemistic language" ({{lang|he|כנה הכתוב}}), i.e. to avoid [[anthropomorphism]] and [[anthropopathism]].<ref name="Jewish"/>

Rabbi Simon ben Pazzi (3rd&nbsp;century) calls these readings "emendations of the Scribes" (''tikkune Soferim''; Midrash Genesis Rabbah xlix. 7), assuming that the Scribes actually made the changes. This view was adopted by the later Midrash and by the majority of Masoretes. In Masoretic works these changes are ascribed to [[Ezra]]; to Ezra and [[Nehemiah]]; to Ezra and the [[Soferim (Talmud)|Soferim]]; or to Ezra, Nehemiah, [[Zechariah (Hebrew prophet)|Zechariah]], [[Haggai]], and [[Book of Baruch|Baruch]]. All these ascriptions mean one and the same thing: that the changes were assumed to have been made by the Men of the [[Great Assembly]].<ref name="Jewish"/>

The term ''tikkun Soferim'' ({{lang|he|תקון סופרים}}) has been understood by different scholars in various ways. Some regard it as a correction of biblical language authorized by the Soferim for homiletical purposes. Others take it to mean a mental change made by the original writers or redactors of Scripture; i.e. the latter shrank from putting in writing a thought which some of the readers might expect them to express.<ref name="Jewish"/>

The assumed emendations are of four general types:
* Removal of unseemly expressions used in reference to God; e.g., the substitution of ("to bless") for ("to curse") in certain passages.
* Safeguarding of the [[Tetragrammaton]]; e.g. substitution of "[[Elohim]]" or "[[Adonai]]" for "[[Yahweh|YHWH]]" in some passages.
* Removal of application of the names of pagan gods, e.g. the change of the name "Ishbaal" to "[[Ish-bosheth]]".
* Safeguarding the unity of divine worship at [[Jerusalem]].<ref name="Jewish"/>