By stressing the relationship between
Yahweh and the Israelites, option i is in keeping with a main Deuteronomic
theme, Yahweh is to be Israel’s only deity. This theme is already expressed in
Deuteronomy 5 as one of the Ten Commandments: “You shall not have other gods
besides me” (לא יהיה־לך אלהים אחרים על־פני, 5:7). Likewise, the verse following
the Shema reinforce this interpretation. According to the charge in 6:5, each
Israelite must love Yahweh with “all your heart, soul, and might” (בכל־לבבך ובכל־נפשׁך
ובכל־מאדך), and vv. 13-14 remind each Israelite that he may revere, serve, and
swear only by Yahweh and that he may not follow any other gods; after all,
Yahweh is a “jealous God” (אל קנא, v. 15). This thematic unity between the
Shema’s proclamation and the rest of Deuteronomy 6 is the strongest argument in
favor of option i, “Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone.”
Nevertheless, there are problems with
option i. First, nowhere else in Deuteronomy are the words Yahweh (יהוה) and
my/our/your-God (אלהי-) juxtaposed with the latter functioning predicatively,
meaning “Yahweh (is) my/our/your God.” This Deuteronomist paired these two
words as a unit nearly 300 times, and, according to R. W. L. Moberly, it is
unlikely that Deuteronomy 6:4 would be the only instance in which these two
words would have to be split by a linking verb in translation. Moreover, option
i requires a special nuance of the Shema’s final word אחד, which normally means
“one” rather than “alone.” The usual biblical Hebrew word for “alone” is לבד-,
as it is used, for example, in 2 Kings 19:15: יהוה אלהי ישׂראל ישׁב הכרבים אתה־הוא
האלהים לבדך (Yahweh//God-of-Israel//Who-Sits-(on)-the-Cherubim-Throne), you
alone are God”). There are a few others passages in which אחד can take on the
meaning “alone,” according to some scholars. For example, 1 Chronicles 29:1
sense when “alone” is used in place of “one”: שׁלמה בני אחד בחר־בו אלהים (“Solomon,
my son, God chose him alone”). Only Solomon, or Solomon alone, is Yahweh’s
choice as the next king. In this vein, only Yahweh, or Yahweh alone, is
Israel’s God. Judah Kraut notes, however, that although an “alone”
translational value for אחד works in 1 Chronicles 29:1, neither in this verse
nor elsewhere does אחד mean “alone” indisputably; “one” makes just as much
sense. (Judah Kraut, “Deciphering the Shema: Staircase Parallelism and the
Syntax of Deuteronomy 6:4,” VT 61 [2011]: 585 n. 8) 1 Chronicles 29:1
works as “Solomon my son is (the) one whom God chose,” and becomes “one” is the
normal and expected meaning of the word, it should be preferred to “alone” as a
translational value. The simpler possibility is the better possibility. Moberly
also rejects the value of אחד as “alone” rather than “one” in 29:1 because it
introduces a contrast between Solomon and David’s other sons that had not been
addressed elsewhere in the passage. (Moberly, “Yahweh is One,” 212)
Zechariah 14:9 also seems to use אחד to
indicate that Yahweh alone is God—not just the one or only God for Israel but
the only God for all mankind: “Yahweh will become king over all the earth. On
that day, it will be Yahweh alone and his name alone” ( והיה יהוה למלך על־כל־הארץ
ביום ההוא יהיה יהוה אחד ושׁמו אחד). Literally, the last five words of the verse
can be translated, “Yahweh will-be one, and-his-name one,” but interpreting
these “one’s” as anything other than a substitute for “alone,” “only,” or possibly
“the one” feels awkward in English. Tigay argues that the wording at the end of
Zechariah 14:9 is based upon the Shema, which means that option i is the only
above interpretation of the Shema that is documented within the Hebrew Bible.
(Tigay, Deuteronomy, 76 and 439) Regardless, relying on a rare and
disputed meaning of HEB and breaking up the fixed pair “Yahweh-our-God” with a
linking verb make option i a less than ideal translation. (Spencer L. Allen, The
Splintered Divine: A Study of Ištar, Baal, and Yahweh Divine Names and Divine
Multiplicity in the Ancient Near East [Studies in Ancient Near Eastern
Records 5; Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2015], 253-55)
