Deuteronomy 6:5 (WEB)

Passage

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

Nearby Context

Deuteronomy 6:3 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.

Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one.

Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

Deuteronomy 6:6 These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart;

Deuteronomy 6:7 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.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "shall", "love", "yahweh", "heart", "soul", and "might". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "shall" and "love", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 4's "Hear Israel Yahweh is our God Yahweh..." into verse 6's "These words which I command you today...", so "shall" and "love" belong inside that flow. In Deuteronomy context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "shall" and "love" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.