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

Tanakh

The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...

. Some short verses contain only members of the sof passuk group.

The Sof passuk can be preceded by the marks Mercha

Mercha

Mercha is a cantillation mark commonly found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books that are chanted.The mercha is found in several trope groups, though the melody varies from one use to the next...

, 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...

, and Mercha in that order, including either all or some of these. However, these Merchas and Tipchas do not have the same melody as those in 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. Altogether, there are five possible arrangements how these can appear.

Sof passuq is identical in appearance to the punctuation mark meteg

Meteg

Meteg is a punctuation mark used in Biblical Hebrew for stress marking. It is a vertical bar place under the affected syllable....

.

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...	5852
Genesis	1533
Exodus	1213
Leviticus	859
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....	1288
Deuteronomy	959
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:...	4975
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"...	3599

In the Ten Commandments

There is controversy over the use of the Sof Passuk during the reading of the Ten Commandments

Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...

. There are two versions of the trope sounds for the Ten Commandments, one that divides them into 13 verses, based on the number of Sof Passuk notes, and the other that divides them into ten verses, the actual number of commandments. It is for this reason that not all commandments actually have a sof passuk at the end of their own names.

Sof parasha

The end of a single reading (aliya

Aliyah (Torah)

An aliyah is the calling of a member of a Jewish congregation to the bimah for a segment of reading from the Torah. The person who receives the aliyah goes up to the bimah before the reading and recites a blessing. After the reading, the recipient then recites another concluding blessing...

) is marked by a Sof Parasha (סוף פרשה), which is chanted in a different melody, thereby giving the sound of finality to the reading. The Sof parasha can be applied to different verses based on different reading schedules, including the full parsha (on Shabbat

Shabbat

Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...

 during Shacharit

Shacharit

Shacharit is the the daily morning Tefillah of the Jewish people, one of the three times there is prayer each day.Shacharit is said to have been established by the patriarch Abraham when he prayed in the morning...

 in most synagogues), a partial reading (as is read on weekdays, Shabbat Mincha

Mincha

Mincha, מנחה is the afternoon prayer service in Judaism.-Etymology:The name "Mincha" is derived from the meal offering that accompanied each sacrifice.-Origin:...

, and the selected readings of various holidays), or the Triennial cycle

Triennial cycle

The Triennial cycle of Torah reading may refer to the historical practice in ancient Israel by which the entire Torah was read in serial fashion over a three year period, or to the practice adopted by many Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Renewal congregations starting in the 19th and...

.

Sof Sefer

At the conclusion to any sefer of the Torah, a special tune is used in order to incorporate the words "Chazak Chazak Vinischazek" which after the final word are recited first by the congregation and then repeated by the reader.