'No Hope' Written, 'In Him' Read — Job 13:15
לֹא / לוֹ
What to look for
Job's cry — 'Though He slay me…' — where the text writes לא ('I have NO hope') but the margin note instructs readers to say לו ('I will hope IN HIM'). Look for the small circle over the word pointing to the marginal qere note.
What it is
The most famous ketiv/qere (written-versus-read) in Scripture: two spellings, identical in sound, opposite in meaning.
Why it matters
Despair stands in the ink; faith stands in the reading — and the tradition preserves both rather than choosing. Job's whole book lives inside this one word.
How it has been understood
The scribes could have erased the contradiction; instead they notated it. Every public reading of Job performs the resolution: the eye sees 'no hope,' the voice says 'in Him I will hope.' It is the tradition's boldest statement that faith is not the absence of despair but the reading of it.