Mercha is a cantillation

Cantillation

Cantillation is the ritual chanting of readings from the Hebrew Bible in synagogue services. The chants are written and notated in accordance with the special signs or marks printed in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible to complement the letters and vowel points...

 mark commonly found in the Torah

Torah

Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...

, Haftarah

Haftarah

The haftarah or haftoroh is a series of selections from the books of Nevi'im of the Hebrew Bible that is publicly read in synagogue as part of Jewish religious practice...

, and other books that are chanted.

The mercha is found in several trope groups, though the melody varies from one use to the next. It is the beginning of the Etnachta

Etnachta

Etnachta is one of the most common cantillation marks in the Torah and Haftarah. It is the anchor for the Etnachta group, which in full consists of four different trope sounds, not all of which are always present...

 group, can be found either once or twice preceding the Sof passuk

Sof passuk

The Sof passuk is the cantillation mark that occurs on the last word of every verse in the Tanakh...

, or can occasionally precede the Pashta

Pashta

Pashta is a common cantillation mark found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books of the Hebrew Bible. It is part of the Katan group. Its mark symbol is identical to that of the Kadma....

 in the Katon group or a Tevir

Tevir

Tevir is a cantillation mark commonly found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other Hebrew biblical books...

.

The 9117 times Mercha is found in the Torah 9117 is the second most of any trope sounds. Only Tipcha

Tipcha

Tipcha is a cantillation mark commonly found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books that are chanted.The Tipcha is found in both the Etnachta group as the second member of that group, and in the Sof passuk group, though the melody varies slightly in each...

 occurs more often.

The Hebrew word מֵרְכָ֥א translates into English as comma.

Total occurrences

Book	Number of appearances
Torah Torah Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...	9117
Genesis	2415
Exodus	1879
Leviticus	1371
Numbers Book of Numbers The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch....	1859
Deuteronomy	1595
Nevi'im Nevi'im Nevi'im is the second of the three major sections in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh. It falls between the Torah and Ketuvim .Nevi'im is traditionally divided into two parts:...	7672
Ketuvim Ketuvim Ketuvim or Kəṯûḇîm in actual Biblical Hebrew is the third and final section of the Tanak , after Torah and Nevi'im . In English translations of the Hebrew Bible, this section is usually entitled "Writings" or "Hagiographa"...	5235

In Sof Passuk group

First appearance (before Tipcha)


Second appearance (after Tipcha)