The Dotted Resh of the Amorite Ballad — Numbers 21:30
אֲשֶׁר
What to look for
In the old victory ballad over Sihon — 'we laid waste as far as Nophah, which reaches to Medeba' — the resh of asher is dotted.
What it is
A dotted letter inside a quoted ancient poem, one of the oldest fragments of verse in the Torah.
Why it matters
The dot flags a textual question in a line the Torah itself is quoting from 'those who speak in proverbs' — the scribes marking uncertainty inside an already-ancient source.
How it has been understood
Some read the dot as hinting the word could be split or read differently (esh, 'fire,' reaching Medeba). It is a rare window into the scribes handling a text older than their own tradition — carefully, dot by dot.