Passage

Deuteronomy 6.5

Book: Deuteronomy · ASV

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"3. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as Jehovah, the God of thy fathers, hath promised unto thee, in a land flowing with milk and honey. 4. Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah:"

"5. and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."

"6. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart; 7. and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." (Deuteronomy 6:3-7, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"3. Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. 4. Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one."

"5. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might."

"6. These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; 7. and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up." (Deuteronomy 6:3-7, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"3. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. 4. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:"

"5. And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."

"6. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. ^{teach: Heb. whet, or, sharpen}" (Deuteronomy 6:3-7, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"3. 'And thou hast heard, O Israel, and observed to do, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest multiply exceedingly, as Jehovah, God of thy fathers, hath spoken to thee, [in] the land flowing with milk and honey. 4. 'Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God [is] one Jehovah;"

"5. and thou hast loved Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might,"

"6. and these words which I am commanding thee to-day have been on thine heart, 7. and thou hast repeated them to thy sons, and spoken of them in thy sitting in thine house, and in thy walking in the way, and in thy lying down, and in thy rising up," (Deuteronomy 6:3-7, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Moses, in the final exhortations of the wilderness generation
Audience: the second-generation Israelites poised to enter Canaan
Location: the plains of Moab, east of the Jordan, opposite Jericho
Time period: end of the wilderness wandering, traditional date c. 1406 BC (early-date) or c. 1220 BC (late-date)

Theological reading

Deut 6:4-5 is the Shema, the central covenantal confession of Israel and the Jewish liturgical text par excellence. The Shema joins two indissoluble moves: the theological assertion of YHWH's uniqueness ("YHWH our God is one YHWH") and the ethical-anthropological demand of total covenantal love ("thou shalt love YHWH thy God with all thy lebab, and with all thy nephesh, and with all thy meod"). The triple "with all" is the integrating move: not three separate faculties to coordinate but the whole inner person (lebab), the whole life-force (nephesh), and the whole capacity (meod) demanded by the covenant. The Hebrew lebab here is comprehensive, intellect, will, affection, conscience, identity, not the modern-English "heart" of feeling alone.

Christ identifies this verse as the first commandment (Mk 12:29-30 // Matt 22:37 // Luke 10:27), expanding the triple to a quadruple, heart, soul, mind, strength, which is not a contradiction but a Hellenistic-Greek unpacking of what the Hebrew lebab already integrates. The Christian ethical tradition (Augustine's ordo amoris, Aquinas' caritas as the form of all virtues, Edwards' Religious Affections, Smith's You Are What You Love) takes the Shema as the structural center of the moral life. The verse is also load-bearing for biblical anthropology against modern Cartesian / Enlightenment bifurcations of mind / will / feeling.

Key words

H3824 - lebab, lebab (Strong's H3824). The integrated inner self demanded by the covenant.

Quoted in

Notes

Stub. Promote to rich hub when warranted.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.