"... The tiqqune soferim, "corrections of the scribes," recorded in the Masorah, are words referred to in the Masorah as representing early corrections by the soferim. The Masorah records for these "corrected words" the specific words representing the presumed uncorrected, original text. According to various sources, the scribes corrected the text in several places — 8 (7) according to Sifre 84 (pp. 81-82) to Numbers 10:35, and 11 (9) according to Mekhilta Shirata 6 to Exodus 15:7 (the various manuscripts of these compositions contain different items), and 18 according to additional sources. The list in the Mekhilta to Exodus 15:7 contains the following eleven instances (in this sequence in the edition of Horowitz): Zechariah 2:12; Malachi 1:13; 1 Samuel 3:13; Job 7:20; Habakkuk 1:12; Jeremiah 2:11; Psalm 106:20; Numbers 11:15; 1 Kings 12:16; Ezekiel 8:17; Numbers 12:12. For these verses the rabbis use two main terms, namely, "the verse uses a euphemism," in the early sources (Sifre 84 to Numbers 10:35; Mekhilta to Exodus 15:7) and tiqqun, "correction," in the later lists. The two terms may reflect ancient conflicting views of the phenomenon, that is, either euphemisms or ancient textual corrections. However, since the terms are used in lists of different dates, it is more likely that the differences in terminology reflect a development in conception. Probably the tradition originally referred to mere "euphemisms" (substitutions) and only afterwards were they taken as corrections. Another common characteristic of the corrections of the scribes is that most of them correct merely one or two letters, principally the pronominal suffix. If the corrections had represented changes in the text, it is hard to believe that the correctors would have limited themselves to such small details. ..."

"... Note, for example, the perceptive insight of Robert Gordis on Hosea 4:15, in his "Studies in the Relationship of Biblical and Rabbinic Hebrew," L. Ginzberg Jubilee Volume (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1945), 195-7, that YeHuDaH is a euphemistic correction of YHWH. As a parallel instance, the absence of the first-person pronouns in Pesher Nahum (1QpNah) column 2, lines 10-11, citing the biblical text of Nahum 3:5 (compare the Masoretic Text), suggests a scribal correction at Qumran to obscure direct divine involvement in the punishment which is forecast. ..."