Deuteronomy 32:5
They have sinned against him, and are not of his children in their filth: they are a wicked and perverse generation.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Peccaverunt ei, et non filii ejus in sordibus : generatio prava atque perversa.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἡμάρτοσαν, οὐκ αὐτῷ τέκνα, μωμητά· γενεὰ σκολιὰ καὶ διεστραμμένη.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- שִׁחֵ֥ת ל֛וֹ לֹ֖א בָּנָ֣יו מוּמָ֑ם דּ֥וֹר עִקֵּ֖שׁ וּפְתַלְתֹּֽל
Haydock's commentary
Filth, or idolatry. The fidelity of God is contrasted with the infidelity of his people, who deserve not to be called his children. The Septuagint, Chaldean, Syriac, and Arabic, seem to have read in a different manner from what the Hebrew does at present. (Calmet)
As it stands it is quite unintelligible: Corrupit, non filii ejus, macula eorum. Two letters have been carelessly inserted, and la has been placed after lu, contrary to the Samaritan text, which is perfectly clear: "They are corrupted, they are not his, but filii maculæ, children defiled." (Houbigant, prol. 75.)
Capellus (p. 288,) condemns the Septuagint as he follows a wrong punctuation, and translates, "they did not sin against him, reprehensible children;" whereas, it more properly signifies, "they sinned, not his, but children deserving reprehension, (or children of blame, they did not belong or stick close to him) being a crooked and perverse generation." (Haydock)
Their wickedness cannot be attributed to God. He is no less powerful and holy, though they have given themselves up to the service of idols. (St. Augustine, q. 55.) (Calmet)
He had given them all necessary instructions and assistance; so that, finding them always prone to evil, the more favours he heaped upon them, he was on the point of exterminating all the guilty at once, ver. 26. (Haydock)
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
Clement of Alexandria The Instructor, Chapter IX. That It is the Prerogative of the Same Power to Be Beneficent and to Punish Justly. Also the Manner of the Instruction of the Logos
Indignation is a rightful upbraiding; or upbraiding on account of ways exalted above what is right. In this way He instructed by Moses, when He said, “Faulty children, a generation crooked and perverse, do ye thus requite the Lord ? This people is foolish, and not wise. Is not this thy father who acquired thee?” He says also by Isaiah, “Thy princes are disobedient, companions of thieves, loving gifts, following after rewards, not judging the orphans.”
St Gregory Nazianzen On His Father's Silence, Because of the Plague of Hail
10. What are we to do now, my brethren, when crushed, cast down, and drunken but not with strong drink nor with wine, which excites and obfuscates but for a while, but with the blow which the Lord has inflicted upon us, Who says, And thou, O heart, be stirred and shaken, and gives to the despisers the spirit of sorrow and deep sleep to drink: to whom He also says, See, ye despisers, behold, and wonder and perish? How shall we bear His convictions; or what reply shall we make, when He reproaches us not only with the multitude of the benefits for which we have continued ungrateful, but also with His chastisements, and reckons up the remedies with which we have refused to be healed? Calling us His children indeed, but unworthy children, and His sons, but strange sons who have stumbled from lameness out of their paths, in the trackless and rough ground. …