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PHOTOGRAPH BY BRUCE AND KENNETH ZUCKERMAN, WEST SEMITIC RESEARCH, IN COLLABORATION WITH THE ANCIENT BIBLICAL MANUSCRIPT CENTER / COURTESY THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF RUSSIA

Both the St. Petersburg (or Leningrad) Codex (1009 CE), shown here, and the Aleppo Codex employ the same strategy to highlight David’s answer to Nathan in 2 Samuel 12:13. Before and after the short sentence wayyomer dawid ’el-natan ḥaṭati l-YHWH, “And David said to Nathan: ‘I have sinned against the Lord,’” white spaces are used to isolate this brief sequence from the surrounding material, emphasizing the significance of David’s utterance.