ONE — the last of the Shema's four words, and the one the whole verse turns on. ⭐ Deuteronomy 6:4 has no verb in it at all, so an English translation must insert an ‘is’ the Hebrew never wrote, and where it goes decides what echad is doing: a predicate (‘Jehovah is one’), part of a predicate noun (‘is one Jehovah’), or an assertion of exclusivity (‘Jehovah alone’). All three are grammatically available and the shelf takes all three, seven witnesses to three to three. ⚠ The word itself does not settle it, because echad is the ordinary numeral one and can be a COMPOSITE one — evening and morning are ‘one day’ (Genesis 1:5); a man and his wife become ‘one flesh’ (Genesis 2:24). Arguments about the verse that rest on the word alone are resting on nothing; the argument is about the missing verb. → first discussed at Deut 6:4