Deuteronomy 32:4
The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments: God is faithful and without any iniquity, he is just and right.
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The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Dei perfecta sunt opera, et omnes viæ ejus judicia : Deus fidelis, et absque ulla iniquitate, justus et rectus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- θεός, ἀληθινὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ, καὶ πᾶσαι αἱ ὁδοὶ αὐτοῦ κρίσεις· θεὸς πιστός, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἀδικία· δίκαιος καὶ ὅσιος Κύριος.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- הַצּוּר֙ תָּמִ֣ים פָּעֳל֔וֹ כִּ֥י כָל דְּרָכָ֖יו מִשְׁפָּ֑ט אֵ֤ל אֱמוּנָה֙ וְאֵ֣ין עָ֔וֶל צַדִּ֥יק וְיָשָׁ֖ר הֽוּא
Haydock's commentary
Right. You cannot complain of having been first abandoned by God. All his works and proceedings are entitled to praise. Hebrew, "This rock, (hatsur) his works are perfect." (Calmet)
Septuagint, "God, his works are true." (Haydock)
God is often styled a rock, to denote this strength, ver. 18., and Psalm lxii. 8.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Irenaeus Against Heresies: Book III, Chapter XVIII. Continuation of the
7. Therefore, as I have already said, He caused man (human nature) to cleave to and to become, one with God. For unless man had overcome the enemy of man, the enemy would not have been legitimately vanquished. And again: unless it had been God who had freely given salvation, we could never have possessed it securely. And unless man had been joined to God, he could never have become a partaker of incorruptibility. For it was incumbent upon the Mediator between God and men, by His relationship to both, to bring both to friendship and concord, and present man to God, while He revealed God to man. …
Origen Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John, Chapter IV
“ He was in the beginning with God. ” By his three foregoing propositions the Evangelist has made us acquainted with three orders, and he now sums up the three in one, saying, “This (Logos) was in the beginning with God.” In the first premiss we learned where the Logos was: He was in the beginning; then we learned with whom He was, with God; and then who He was, that He was God. He now points out by this word “He,” the Word who is God, and gathers up into a fourth proposition the three which went before, “In the beginning was the Word,” “The Word was with God,” and “The Word was God.” Now he says, He, this (Word) was in the beginning with God. The term beginning may be taken of the beginning of the world, so that we may learn from what is said that the Word was older than the things which were made from the beginning. …