Deuteronomy 32:4-5 -

He is the Rock, his work is perfect; rather, The Rock! his work is perfect, i.e. blameless, without fault. God is called "the Rock" ( הַצוּר ), as the unchangeable Refuge and Stronghold of his people, by which they are sustained, and to which they can resort for defense and protection at all times. The epithet is applied to God four times besides in this song ( Deuteronomy 32:15 , Deuteronomy 32:18 , Deuteronomy 32:30 , Deuteronomy 32:31 ); it occurs also frequently in the Psalms (cf. Psalms 19:14 ; Psalms 28:1 ; Psalms 31:2 , Psalms 31:3 ; Psalms 62:2 , Psalms 62:7 ; etc.). The Hebrew word, tsur , cur or zur , appears in several proper names of the Mosaic period, as e.g. Pedahzur , "Rock delivers" ( Numbers 1:10 ), a name of the same import as Pedahel , "God delivers" ( Numbers 34:28 ); Elizur , "God is a Rock" ( Numbers 1:5 ); Zuriel ( Numbers 3:35 ) and Zurishaddai , "the Almighty is Rock" ( Numbers 1:6 ; Numbers 2:12 ). "Jehovah," says Baumgarten, "is here called Rock, without any qualification, the reason is that he is the only true rock, and all the strength and firmness of earth's stones is but an ectype of his unchangeable faithfulness and rectitude. If one cleaves to the dualism of spirit and nature, and regards the figure as a merely subjective, arbitrary union of the two, such an expression is simply unintelligible; but if we would understand Scripture and religious speech, we must with all earnestness accustom ourselves to recognize the spiritual ground in nature, and apprehend this in the Biblical expression." It is remarkable that none of the ancient versions have retained this epithet here. The LXX . have θεὸς : the Vulgate, Deus (" Dei opera "); the Targum of Onkelos, תַּקִיפָא , "Mighty;" while the Peshito has simply the pronoun "his" appended to "works," see word. For all his ways are judgment; i.e. accordant with rectitude (cf. Psalms 145:17 ). A God of truth; rather, of faithfulness ( אְמֶוּנָת , from אָמַן , to stay, or be stayed, to be firm). They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. Of this difficult passage the following seems the best construction and rendering:— A perverse and crooked generation not his children , [but] their spot—has become corrupt towards him. The subject of the verb at the beginning of the verse is the "perverse and crooked generation," at the end of it, and between the verb and its subject there is interjected parenthetically the clause, "not his children, but their spot." Spot is here used in a moral sense, as in Job 11:15 ; Job 31:7 ; Proverbs 9:7 . These corrupt persons claimed to be children of God, but they were not; they were rather a stain and a reproach to them (cf. 2 Peter 2:13 ; Isaiah 1:4 ). The rendering above given is substantially that of De Wette, Knobel, Keil, and Herxheimer, by all of whom the "perverse generation "is regarded as the subject of the sentence. This is the view adopted also in the 'Speaker's Commentary.' Some would make "God" the subject, and render, "He hath corrupted to him, or to himself" (margin, Authorized Version; Ibn Ezra, etc.). Others take "spot" as the subject, thus: "Their spot or blemish hath corrupted before him children not his" (Lowth, Dathe); but such renderings are forced, and proceed on constructions of the text which are illegitimate. Donaldson, following Lowth's construction, appeals to בָּנִים לאֹ אֵמֻן בָּם (verse 20) as a similar inversion. But the two cases are not parallel. To make them so, we must have here בָנָיו לאֹ מוּם בָּם , "his children in whom is no spot." Ewald takes מוּמֶה as the noun here, instead of מוּם , and tracing it to the Syriac, see Arabic word, juravit , renders "to him they, his not sons, have corrupted their oath," i.e. have broken it; and this Furst approves. But the phrase, "to corrupt an oath" is unexampled in the Old Testament, and there is no ground for changing the noun. The ancient versions vary considerably here: LXX ; ἡμάρτοσαν οὐκ αὐτῷ τέκνα μωμητά : Aq; διέφθειραν αὐτῷ οὐκ δι υἱοὶ αὐτου : Sym; διέφθειραν πρὸς αὔτον οὐχ οἱυἱοι τὸ σύνολον : Vulgate, peccaverunt ei et non filii ejus in sordibus ; Vert. Itala; peeca verunt non ei filii maculati ; Syriac, "They corrupted but not him, children of defilement." These various renderings indicate that probably the text is and has long been corrupt. Some of the older English versions are worth noting on this verse. Rogers [Matthew], "The frowarde and overthwart generation hath marred them selves to himward, and are not his sonnes for their deformitie's sake;" Bishop's Bible, "Frowardly have they done agaynst him by their vices, not being his own children, but a wicked and froward generation;" Geneva Version, "They have corrupted themselves towards him by their vice, not being his children, but a froward and crooked generation."