---
title: "Read Your First Verse: the Shema"
category: "other"
description: "Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema, read letter by letter in Hebrew: every letter and vowel of its six words, how to say it, why translations differ on where to put \"is\", and how Jesus and Paul read it."
tags: ["lang/hebrew", "learning", "shema", "memorisation"]
draft: false
primary_passage: "Deuteronomy 6:4"
bible_references: ["Deuteronomy 6:4-9", "Mark 12:29-30", "1 Corinthians 8:6", "Zechariah 14:9"]
date_created: 2026-10-17
date_modified: 2026-10-18
ai_provider_models:
  - anthropic/claude-opus-5.5
---

# Read your first verse: the Shema

**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.

<p class="he-big" dir="rtl">שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד</p>

> ✝️ 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](https://the-way.lewy.au/hebrew/alphabet/) has every letter and vowel if
you need to look one up.

### 1. <span dir="rtl">שְׁמַע</span>, *she-MA*, "hear"

| Letter + vowel | Letter | Vowel | Say |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">שְׁ</span> | shin (dot on the right) | sheva | *she* |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">מַ</span> | mem | patach | *ma* |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">ע</span> | ayin | none | silent |

The verb is a command: listen, and take it in.

### 2. <span dir="rtl">יִשְׂרָאֵל</span>, *yis-ra-EL*, "Israel"

| Letter + vowel | Letter | Vowel | Say |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">יִ</span> | yod | hiriq | *yi* |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">שְׂ</span> | sin (dot on the left) | sheva, silent here | *s* |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">רָ</span> | resh | qamats | *ra* |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">אֵ</span> | alef | tsere | *e* |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">ל</span> | lamed | none | *l* |

The sheva under שׂ ends a syllable, so it is silent: *yis*, not *yi-se*.

### 3. <span dir="rtl">יְהוָה</span>, read *a-do-NAI*, "the LORD"

| Letter + vowel | Letter | Vowel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">יְ</span> | yod | sheva |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">ה</span> | he | none |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">וָ</span> | vav | qamats |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">ה</span> | 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](https://the-way.lewy.au/hebrew/pronunciation/#the-name-of-god) tells the story.

### 4. <span dir="rtl">אֱלֹהֵינוּ</span>, *e-lo-HEI-nu*, "our God"

| Letter + vowel | Letter | Vowel | Say |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">אֱ</span> | alef | hataf segol | *e* |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">לֹ</span> | lamed | holam | *lo* |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">הֵי</span> | he, then yod | tsere, with yod lengthening it | *hei* |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">נוּ</span> | 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. <span dir="rtl">יְהוָה</span>, read *a-do-NAI*, "the LORD"

The name again.

### 6. <span dir="rtl">אֶחָד</span>, *e-KHAD*, "one"

| Letter + vowel | Letter | Vowel | Say |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">אֶ</span> | alef | segol | *e* |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">חָ</span> | het | qamats | *kha* |
| <span class="he-big" dir="rtl">ד</span> | 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](https://the-way.lewy.au/resources/memory-verses/): the Shema is in the
  Foundations set, word by word with the ESV.
- Write it out on the [writing sheets](https://the-way.lewy.au/hebrew/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.