I was reading Genesis 33 and noticed extra dots (i.e. not part of the niqqud that I understand) above the letters of “and he kissed him” in verse 4 (picture from archive.org’s Biblia Hebraica):
and he fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.
A little bit of Googling shows that similar dots occur fifeteen times in BHS.* One explanation:
[The dots] were inserted to call attention to some important homiletical teaching in connection with the words, but possibly they indicate that the words or letters were doubtful and are to be deleted, presumably when Elijah comes and resolves the various scribal disagreements that have sprung up. Ezra is hedging his bets saying that if Elijah says ‘why have you written these words’ he will reply ‘I have placed dots over them’ and if he says ‘you have written them correctly’ then he will remove the dots! (Avot d’Rabbi Natan 30b).
With regard to Genesis 33:4 in particular, Rabbinic sources seem to disagree about whether the dots are meant to emphasize the reconciliation between the brothers or to indicate that this word should be understood as “and he bit him,” yielding a very different interpretation.
Why were these dots included in the Masoretic text?
*Using BHS numbers, these are: Gen 16:5, 18:9, 19:33, 33:4, 37:12; Nu 3:39 (here with a complete list in the *Masorah Magna*), 9:10, 21:30, 29:15; Dt 29:28; Ps 27:13; 2 Sam 19:20; Isa 44:9; Ezek 41:20, 46:22.
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