Massorete

For textual purposes the Vulgate possesses but little value, since it presupposes a Hebrew original practically identical with the text stereotyped by the Massoretes.

Those due to the Massoretes, or, in other words, the K’ris, will naturally deserve attention from their antiquity. 

And the same may be said of G. Jahn's theory that some mention of the singing of the three, contained in the original, was expunged by the Massoretes as too wonderful and apocryphal.

It is to the Massoretes that some attribute the accents which serve to mark at once the punctuation and the accentuation of the Biblical text.

They do not point to any critical editing of the text; for the aim of the Massoretes was essentially conservative.