Wikipedia's first sentence called it “rare character – the letter nun in mirror image – which appears in the masoretic text of the tanakh in nine dif”. Today it says “rare glyph used in classical hebrew”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Ordinary letter nun Inverted nun - vertical flip Inverted nun - horizontal flip”. It now reads “Classical Hebrew glyph Ordinary letter nun Inverted nun - vertical flip”.
Found by software in Wikipedia's own edit history. Not yet read by hand. The quoted words are Wikipedia's.
Compared with the live article on 2026-08-04.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2025 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2025
Inverted nun - vertical flip Inverted nun - horizontal flip Inverted nun - Z-shape Inverted nun ( נו"ן מנוזרת "isolated nun " or נו"ן הפוכה "inverted nun " or " ׆ " in Hebrew ) is a rare glyph used in classical Hebrew. Its function in the ancient texts is disputed. It takes the form of the letter nun in mirror image , and appears in the Masoretic text of the Tanakh in nine different places: Numbers - twice, 10:35–36: the two verses are delineated by inverted nuns , sometimes isolated outside the passage text and sometimes embedded within words in verses 10:35 and 11:1. Psalms - seven times in Psalm 107 (vs 23-28, vs 40) The images at right show three common variants of the inverted nun – vertically flipped, horizontally flipped, and Z-shaped. Other renderings exist, corresponding to alternative interpretations of the term "inverted". It may also occur with a dot above.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1288834274.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Ordinary letter nun Inverted nun - vertical flip Inverted nun - horizontal flip Inverted nun - Z-shape Inverted nun (נו"ן מנוזרת "isolated nun" or נו"ן הפוכה "inverted nun" in Hebrew ) is a rare character – the letter nun in mirror image – which appears in the Masoretic text of the Tanakh in nine different places: Twice in the Book of Numbers , 10:35–36: the two verses are delineated by inverted nuns. Seven times in chapter 107 of the Book of Psalms . The images at right show three common variants of the inverted nun – vertically flipped, horizontally flipped, and Z-shaped. Other renderings exist, corresponding to alternative interpretations of the term "inverted." It may also occur with a dot above. Nun hafucha described at sofer.co.uk Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set: International Organization for Standardization e.g.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 361391809.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Ordinary letter nun Inverted nun - vertical flip Inverted nun - horizontal flip Inverted nun - Z-shape Inverted nun ( נו"ן מנוזרת "isolated nun" or נו"ן הפוכה "inverted nun" or "׆" in Hebrew ) is a rare glyph used in classical Hebrew.Its function in the ancient texts is disputed. It takes the form of the letter nun in mirror image , and appears in the Masoretic text of the Tanakh in nine different places: Twice in the Book of Numbers , 10:35–36: the two verses are delineated by inverted nuns. Seven times in chapter 107 of the Book of Psalms . The images at right show three common variants of the inverted nun – vertically flipped, horizontally flipped, and Z-shaped. Other renderings exist, corresponding to alternative interpretations of the term "inverted". It may also occur with a dot above. Nun hafucha described at sofer.co.uk Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set: International Organization for Standardization e.g.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 560298592.
The opening as it stood in 2020 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Ordinary letter nun Inverted nun - vertical flip Inverted nun - horizontal flip Inverted nun - Z-shape Inverted nun ( "isolated nun " or "inverted nun " or " " in Hebrew ) is a rare glyph used in classical Hebrew. Its function in the ancient texts is disputed. It takes the form of the letter nun in mirror image , and appears in the Masoretic text of the Tanakh in nine different places: Numbers - twice, 10:35–36: the two verses are delineated by inverted nuns Psalms - seven times in chapter 107 The images at right show three common variants of the inverted nun – vertically flipped, horizontally flipped, and Z-shaped. Other renderings exist, corresponding to alternative interpretations of the term "inverted". It may also occur with a dot above.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 937525675.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Classical Hebrew glyph Ordinary letter nun Inverted nun - vertical flip Inverted nun - horizontal flip Inverted nun - Z-shape Inverted nun ( נו"ן מנוזרת "isolated nun " or נו"ן הפוכה "inverted nun " or " ׆ " in Hebrew ) is a rare glyph used in classical Hebrew. Its function in the ancient texts is disputed. It takes the form of the letter nun in mirror image , and appears in the Masoretic text of the Tanakh in nine different places: Numbers - twice, 10:35–36: the two verses are delineated by inverted nuns , sometimes isolated outside the passage text and sometimes embedded within words in verses 10:35 and 11:1.Psalms - seven times in chapter 107 (vs 20-25, vs 39) The images at right show three common variants of the inverted nun – vertically flipped, horizontally flipped, and Z-shaped. Other renderings exist, corresponding to alternative interpretations of the term "inverted". It may also occur with a dot above.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1170167094.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “rare character – the letter nun in mirror image – which appears in the masoretic text of the tanakh in nine dif”. Today it says “rare glyph used in classical hebrew”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Ordinary letter nun Inverted nun - vertical flip Inverted nun - horizontal flip”. It now reads “Classical Hebrew glyph Ordinary letter nun Inverted nun - vertical flip”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
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2025
disputed
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Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
rare character – the letter nun in mirror image – which appears in the masoretic text of the tanakh in nine dif
Now
rare glyph used in classical hebrew
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.