Read your first verse: the Shema
New, published 17 October 2026. What else is new
In one sentence: Deuteronomy 6:4 is six Hebrew words long, every letter in it is one you can learn this week, and it is the verse Jesus called the most important in the Bible.
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד
✝️ Deuteronomy 6:4 (ESV)
4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
It is called the Shema (she-MA) after its first word, "Hear". Moses told Israel to keep these words on their hearts and to speak of them "when you lie down, and when you rise" (Deuteronomy 6:7, ESV). Jews still say it every morning and evening, and the Mishnah, written down around AD 200, opens with the question of when the evening Shema may be said (Berakhot 1:1). You can learn it in the words Jesus quoted.
Word by word
Read each table right to left along the Hebrew, top to bottom down the rows. Each row is one letter with the vowel beneath or beside it. The alphabet page has every letter and vowel if you need to look one up.
1. שְׁמַע, she-MA, "hear"
| Letter + vowel | Letter | Vowel | Say |
|---|---|---|---|
| שְׁ | shin (dot on the right) | sheva | she |
| מַ | mem | patach | ma |
| ע | ayin | none | silent |
The verb is a command: listen, and take it in.
2. יִשְׂרָאֵל, yis-ra-EL, "Israel"
| Letter + vowel | Letter | Vowel | Say |
|---|---|---|---|
| יִ | yod | hiriq | yi |
| שְׂ | sin (dot on the left) | sheva, silent here | s |
| רָ | resh | qamats | ra |
| אֵ | alef | tsere | e |
| ל | lamed | none | l |
The sheva under שׂ ends a syllable, so it is silent: yis, not yi-se.
3. יְהוָה, read a-do-NAI, "the LORD"
| Letter + vowel | Letter | Vowel |
|---|---|---|
| יְ | yod | sheva |
| ה | he | none |
| וָ | vav | qamats |
| ה | he | none |
God's own name. Its vowels are a reminder to say Adonai, "Lord", in its place, which is how it was read aloud by the time of Jesus. How Hebrew Is Pronounced tells the story.
4. אֱלֹהֵינוּ, e-lo-HEI-nu, "our God"
| Letter + vowel | Letter | Vowel | Say |
|---|---|---|---|
| אֱ | alef | hataf segol | e |
| לֹ | lamed | holam | lo |
| הֵי | he, then yod | tsere, with yod lengthening it | hei |
| נוּ | nun, then vav | shuruk | nu |
Elohim, "God", with the ending -nu, "our". The God of the whole earth is the God who belongs to this people.
5. יְהוָה, read a-do-NAI, "the LORD"
The name again.
6. אֶחָד, e-KHAD, "one"
| Letter + vowel | Letter | Vowel | Say |
|---|---|---|---|
| אֶ | alef | segol | e |
| חָ | het | qamats | kha |
| ד | dalet | none | d |
Say it whole
she-MA yis-ra-EL, a-do-NAI e-lo-HEI-nu, a-do-NAI e-KHAD.
Say it slowly, word by word, then at speaking pace.
Where does the "is" go?
English needs a verb, and Hebrew often leaves one out. After "Hear, O Israel" the Hebrew has four words and no "is": the LORD, our God, the LORD, one. Translators have to decide where the verb goes, which is why English Bibles print the alternatives in their footnotes:
- "The LORD our God, the LORD is one" (the ESV's text);
- "The LORD our God is one LORD";
- "The LORD is our God, the LORD is one";
- "The LORD is our God, the LORD alone".
All four are honest renderings of the same four words, and the choice between them is open. They agree on the point the chapter makes: the LORD is Israel's God, and there is no other beside Him. That is why the next verse follows as it does: "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6:5, ESV). One God receives all of a person's love.
How Jesus and Paul read it
When a scribe asked Jesus which commandment is the most important, He began with these six words:
✝️ Mark 12:29-30 (ESV)
29 Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
Paul then did something remarkable with the same verse. Writing to Christians surrounded by "many gods" and "many lords" (1 Corinthians 8:5, ESV), he took the Shema's two words, God and Lord, and confessed both:
✝️ 1 Corinthians 8:6 (ESV)
6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
Paul keeps the Shema whole and finds Jesus inside it, as the one Lord through whom all things were made. The prophets look ahead to the day the whole world says it: "On that day the LORD will be one and his name one" (Zechariah 14:9, ESV).
So when you say these six words you are saying what Israel said every morning and evening, what Jesus called the first commandment, and what the apostles confessed of Him. The one God has made Himself known, and He asks for your whole heart.
Keep it
- Print it as a memory verse card: the Shema is in the Foundations set, word by word with the ESV.
- Write it out on the writing sheets: every letter in it is on the first three square-script sheets.
- Say it when you wake up and before you sleep, as Deuteronomy 6:7 says.