Image of Actual Masoretic text
Below quoted from website examining Masoretic text:
"The original Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament are no longer extant, but diligent copies have been passed down through the generations. In fact, up until 1946, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, the oldest Hebrew manuscript available to us was the Aleppo Codex. This codex is the most complete copy of the Hebrew Old Testament in existence today. It was written by a group of Jews called the Masoretes. These were Jewish scribes and scholars of Babylonia and Palestine, in the 6th to 10th centuries AD, who set the standard for Hebrew pronunciation and grammar.
From the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD, many ancient manuscripts of the Old Testament were destroyed, and through the years, the traditions of men had corrupted the Jewish heritage. The Masoretes made it their special work to correct the faults from the years past, and prevent any corruption in the future. They presented, what is known today as the Masoretic Text. A complete Hebrew Old Testament, written as God intended, without any corruption of tradition, just the pure, Holy Spirit inspired word of God.
The earliest and best manuscript of the Masoretic text is the Aleppo Codex written by Shlomo Ben Boya’a, and Aharon Ben Asher, who added the vowels, cantillation marks, and the Masoretic commentary. This manuscript is dated by scholars to have been written about 929 AD."
Notice the markings in between the columns, and off to side, and at top and bottom of page. These were notations (commentary) made by the Masoretic scribes. Obviously, the Masorites added much commentary to the text-including vowel points. And their commentary & vowel points are no more inspired than the commentary we might find at the bottom of our English Bible.
The notations in the columns are primarily word counts. The Masoretes counted words. They counted the number of words in a passage or chapter or book. And then counted out and found the middle word in the passage, chapter, or book-they did this as a way of verifying their copying was accurate. All future copies would be made and the words counted again. If the middle word/s did not line up they knew they had an error within the text.