Memorize Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Hear, Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah; and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Darby Translation

29 words · about five minutes a day for five days · Share as an image

Start memorizing Deuteronomy 6:4-5 →

Free, no account, nothing to install. The path opens with this verse already in it. Or print a practice sheet: the verse, its blanks, its first letters, and lines to copy it out by hand.

The five steps

1. Meet the verse. Hear it read aloud, then echo it phrase by phrase, with a small hand motion for each phrase.
2. Fill the gaps. About a third of the words become blanks. Say it out loud, supplying them; peek if you need to, trying is the point.
3. Half hidden. Most of the words are gone now. Say it once more at bedtime; sleep locks it in overnight.
4. First letters. Every word reduced to its first letter. Recite it with only those to guide you.
5. All by yourself. Nothing but the reference. One confident recite, then it goes into your Verse Book to come back for review.

Each step makes a fine "tonight's step" spread over five days, and nothing is locked: the numbered dots jump anywhere. How to memorize Bible verses walks through the whole method.

Why it works

Three of the most replicated findings in learning science: retrieval practice (pulling a word from memory strengthens it more than rereading it), spacing (short tries on separate days beat one long one), and sleep (a verse said at bedtime is consolidated overnight). The blanks grow in stages so that every try is hard enough to count and never so hard that you give up.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 in context

Deuteronomy 6 calls Israel to love God with heart, soul, and might. The commands are to shape conversation, home, travel, and family teaching. Moses warns against forgetting amid prosperity and directs parents to explain the exodus and covenant to their children.

Read Deuteronomy 6:4-5 in its chapter · Deuteronomy 6, in the Darby Translation.

Verses that keep it company

• Deuteronomy 31:6Bible verses for strength
• Deuteronomy 31:8Bible verses about fear
• Joshua 1:9Bible verses for strength
• Joshua 24:15
• Ruth 1:16Bible verses about friendship
• 1 Samuel 16:7

In other translations

BSB · Berean Standard BibleKJV · King James VersionNET · New English TranslationWEB · World English BibleASV · American Standard (1901)YLT · Young's Literal Translation

The reference is the same in every one; the path lets you switch mid-way, and pasting any wording you like works too.