Deuteronomy 6:4–7 (KJV): meaning and how to memorise it

What Deuteronomy 6:4–7 says

Moses gives the Shema: the Lord our God is one Lord. Israel must love him with all their heart, and teach his words to their children.

Deuteronomy 6:4–7 in context

¹Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: ²That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. ³Hear 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. ⁴Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: ⁵And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. ⁶And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: ⁷And 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. ⁸And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. ⁹And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. ¹⁰And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,

Deuteronomy 6, verses 1–10. Read the whole chapter with John Brown’s notes in the Self-Interpreting Bible.

Deuteronomy 6:4–7 in the catechisms

The Reformation catechisms and confessions cite Deuteronomy 6:4–7 13 times as a proof text.

WSC 5
Are there more Gods than one?
WLC 8
Are there more Gods than one?
WCF 2.1
There is but one only living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, immutable, immense,…
HC 103
What does God require in the fourth commandment?
WLC 99
What rules are to be observed for the right understanding of the ten commandments?
WLC 104
What are the duties required in the first commandment?
HC 4
What does God's law require of us?
HC 94
What does the LORD require in the first commandment?
WSC 90
How is the Word to be read and heard, that it may become effectual to salvation?
WLC 129
What is required of superiors towards their inferiors?
WLC 156
Is the word of God to be read by all?
WLC 160
What is required of those that hear the word preached?
WCF 21.6
Neither prayer, nor any other part of religious worship, is now, under the gospel, either tied unto, or made more acceptable by any place in which it is performed, or towards…

How to memorise Deuteronomy 6:4–7

Hearers breaks the verse into clauses and teaches each clause in four steps. Then it brings each clause back just before you forget it.

01
Read
Read the verse with the clauses marked. Listen to it read aloud.
02
Trace
Type the first letter of each word, with the words shown faintly.
03
Fade
Half of the words go. Type the text again, and fill the gaps from memory.
04
Recall
All the words go. Type it or say it aloud. Each clause gets its own grade and its own review date.