(Authored by Claude under my guidance.)
In parashat Lech Lecha, when Avram and Lot part ways, Lot looks out over the plain of the Jordan:
The etnachta, which divides the pasuk into its two halves, is on מַשְׁקֶ֑ה. Everything after it is a string of descriptions, and each is set off by a zakef: "before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah" | "like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt" | "as you come to Zoar".
Shadal (also on Sefaria, though without the accents in the final quotation) explains why the accentuator did this, and then suggests a different division:
Two things are worth noticing.
First, Shadal reads the accents as a commentary. The baal hate'amim made an interpretive decision, that these three phrases are parenthetical, and Shadal can both explain it ("did well to separate them") and propose an alternative. This is the same Shadal who, a few chapters later, reads וְעָרֵל זָכָר against the accents (נגד הטעמים).
Second, the alternative is not only about the meaning. Shadal does not just say where the etnachta should go. He writes out the entire pasuk with a full, consistent set of accents. Moving one major pause forces a series of other changes down the line, and he makes them.
Seeing the two readings as trees
The ta'amei hamikra form a hierarchy. Each disjunctive accent ends a phrase, and the stronger accents divide the verse into large pieces, which the weaker accents then divide further. That hierarchy can be drawn as a tree. I recently built a trup editor on Girsology for exactly this sort of question. You load a pasuk, drag cantillation marks onto words (or remove a maqaf or paseq), and a parser for the accent grammar redraws the tree.
Here is the Masoretic accentuation of our pasuk. (Read the tree from left to right: the root is the whole pasuk, and the leaves on the right are the words, top to bottom in the order of the pasuk. The red numbers are explained beneath each tree.)
The first half, under the etnachta, is "and Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was all watered." The second half, under the silluq, splits into the three zakef phrases that Shadal calls parenthetical. That is, the accentuator put Moshe's three added descriptions together in the second half, and set each one off.
And here is Shadal's accentuation, exactly as he printed it, entered into the same editor:
Now the first half runs all the way through כְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֑יִם, and the second half is nothing but בֹּאֲכָ֖ה צֹֽעַר. Within the first half, Shadal puts a segolta on הַיַּרְדֵּן֒, closing off "and he saw all the plain of the Jordan" as a unit. Then "that it was all watered (before Hashem destroyed Sodom and Amorah)" becomes a single zakef phrase, and "like the garden of Hashem, like the land of Egypt" closes the first half at the etnachta. So the phrase that ends the verse alone, "as you come to Tzoar", is free to point back to "the plain of the Jordan", which is how Shadal paraphrases it.
Notice also that Shadal drops the paseq after לִפְנֵ֣י (the Masoretic text has munach legarmeih there) and gives it a gershayim instead.
The parser accepts Shadal's accentuation as a valid one. That does not prove that his reading is correct, of course. But it does show that his proposal is not just a loose suggestion about where a pause "should" go. It is a complete, grammatical alternative accentuation, and you can open it in the editor and compare the two trees side by side, or try your own.
Shadal does this kind of thing several more times in this parasha. He weighs the accents against an alternative on 12:8, 12:19 and 13:13, and explains the accents of 17:17. Perhaps those are for another post.
| י וַיִּשָּׂא־ל֣וֹט אֶת־עֵינָ֗יו וַיַּרְא֙ אֶת־כׇּל־כִּכַּ֣ר הַיַּרְדֵּ֔ן כִּ֥י כֻלָּ֖הּ מַשְׁקֶ֑ה לִפְנֵ֣י ׀ שַׁחֵ֣ת יְהֹוָ֗ה אֶת־סְדֹם֙ וְאֶת־עֲמֹרָ֔ה כְּגַן־יְהֹוָה֙ כְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם בֹּאֲכָ֖ה צֹֽעַר׃ | 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou goest unto Zoar. |
The etnachta, which divides the pasuk into its two halves, is on מַשְׁקֶ֑ה. Everything after it is a string of descriptions, and each is set off by a zakef: "before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah" | "like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt" | "as you come to Zoar".
Shadal (also on Sefaria, though without the accents in the final quotation) explains why the accentuator did this, and then suggests a different division:
לפני שחת ה׳ את סדום ואת עמורה – הם דברי משה בכתבו, (לתוספת ביאור ולא ספור מה שראה לוט), וכן כגן ה׳ כארץ מצרים גם הם דברי משה, גם באכה צער הם דברי משה, כי בימיו לא נשאר מן הככר ההוא אלא צער; ולהיות שלשת המאמרים האלה כלם כעין מאמרים מוסגרים, יפה הפרידם בעל הטעמים; גם אפשר שיהיה שיעור הכתוב כן – וירא את כל ככר הירדן באכה צער כי כלה משקה (לפני שחת ה׳ את סדום ואת עמורה) כגן ה׳, כארץ מצרים, ולפי זה היה האתנח ראוי תחת מצרים כזה
וישא־לוט֨ את־עינ֔יו וירא֘ את־כל־ככ֣ר הירדן֒ כ֧י כל֣ה משק֗ה לפנ֞י שח֤ת ה֙׳ את־סד֣ום ואת־עמור֔ה כגן־ה֖׳ כא֣רץ מצר֑ים באכ֖ה צער:
וישא־לוט֨ את־עינ֔יו וירא֘ את־כל־ככ֣ר הירדן֒ כ֧י כל֣ה משק֗ה לפנ֞י שח֤ת ה֙׳ את־סד֣ום ואת־עמור֔ה כגן־ה֖׳ כא֣רץ מצר֑ים באכ֖ה צער:
"Before Hashem destroyed Sodom and Amorah -- these are the words of Moshe as he wrote [it] (as an added explanation, and not a narration of what Lot saw). And so too, like the garden of Hashem, like the land of Egypt are also the words of Moshe. Also as you come to Tzoar are the words of Moshe, for in his day nothing remained of that plain except Tzoar. And since these three statements are all like parenthetical statements, the baal hate'amim [the accentuator] did well to separate them.
It is also possible that the structure of the verse is as follows: 'and he saw all the plain of the Jordan, as you come to Tzoar, that it was all watered (before Hashem destroyed Sodom and Amorah), like the garden of Hashem, like the land of Egypt.' And according to this, the etnachta would belong under מצרים, like this: [and he then writes out the pasuk with his own accents]."
It is also possible that the structure of the verse is as follows: 'and he saw all the plain of the Jordan, as you come to Tzoar, that it was all watered (before Hashem destroyed Sodom and Amorah), like the garden of Hashem, like the land of Egypt.' And according to this, the etnachta would belong under מצרים, like this: [and he then writes out the pasuk with his own accents]."
Two things are worth noticing.
First, Shadal reads the accents as a commentary. The baal hate'amim made an interpretive decision, that these three phrases are parenthetical, and Shadal can both explain it ("did well to separate them") and propose an alternative. This is the same Shadal who, a few chapters later, reads וְעָרֵל זָכָר against the accents (נגד הטעמים).
Second, the alternative is not only about the meaning. Shadal does not just say where the etnachta should go. He writes out the entire pasuk with a full, consistent set of accents. Moving one major pause forces a series of other changes down the line, and he makes them.
Seeing the two readings as trees
The ta'amei hamikra form a hierarchy. Each disjunctive accent ends a phrase, and the stronger accents divide the verse into large pieces, which the weaker accents then divide further. That hierarchy can be drawn as a tree. I recently built a trup editor on Girsology for exactly this sort of question. You load a pasuk, drag cantillation marks onto words (or remove a maqaf or paseq), and a parser for the accent grammar redraws the tree.
Here is the Masoretic accentuation of our pasuk. (Read the tree from left to right: the root is the whole pasuk, and the leaves on the right are the words, top to bottom in the order of the pasuk. The red numbers are explained beneath each tree.)
The first half, under the etnachta, is "and Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was all watered." The second half, under the silluq, splits into the three zakef phrases that Shadal calls parenthetical. That is, the accentuator put Moshe's three added descriptions together in the second half, and set each one off.
And here is Shadal's accentuation, exactly as he printed it, entered into the same editor:
Now the first half runs all the way through כְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֑יִם, and the second half is nothing but בֹּאֲכָ֖ה צֹֽעַר. Within the first half, Shadal puts a segolta on הַיַּרְדֵּן֒, closing off "and he saw all the plain of the Jordan" as a unit. Then "that it was all watered (before Hashem destroyed Sodom and Amorah)" becomes a single zakef phrase, and "like the garden of Hashem, like the land of Egypt" closes the first half at the etnachta. So the phrase that ends the verse alone, "as you come to Tzoar", is free to point back to "the plain of the Jordan", which is how Shadal paraphrases it.
Notice also that Shadal drops the paseq after לִפְנֵ֣י (the Masoretic text has munach legarmeih there) and gives it a gershayim instead.
The parser accepts Shadal's accentuation as a valid one. That does not prove that his reading is correct, of course. But it does show that his proposal is not just a loose suggestion about where a pause "should" go. It is a complete, grammatical alternative accentuation, and you can open it in the editor and compare the two trees side by side, or try your own.
Shadal does this kind of thing several more times in this parasha. He weighs the accents against an alternative on 12:8, 12:19 and 13:13, and explains the accents of 17:17. Perhaps those are for another post.
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