Limitless Word

Deuteronomy 32:4

He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is!
Deuteronomy 32:4 · New Living Translation · underlined terms are tappable
Parallel translations
  • WEB The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.
  • KJV He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
  • BSB He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.
  • NKJV He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.
  • NASB “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and just is He.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

God is called the Rock whose work is perfect, all His ways just, faithful and without wrong. It matters because it establishes God's flawless righteousness as the standard against which Israel's sin is measured.

Overview

This towering description of God as the Rock, perfect, just, faithful, and upright, anchors the entire Song. God's unwavering integrity stands in stark contrast to the corruption of His people described next. The title 'Rock' recurs throughout the chapter and is applied in the New Testament to Christ, the steadfast foundation of salvation.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 40

  • Ps 18:30–31As for God, his way is perfect. Yahweh’s word is tried. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.
  • Ps 92:15to show that Yahweh is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
  • Isa 26:4Trust in Yahweh forever; for in Yah, Yahweh, is an everlasting Rock.
  • 2 Sam 22:31–32As for God, his way is perfect. Yahweh’s word is tested. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.
  • Dan 4:37Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven; for all his works are truth, and his ways justice; and those who walk in pride he is able to abase.
  • Ps 18:2Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
  • Rev 15:3–4They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God, the Almighty! Righteous and true are your ways, you King of the nations.
  • Matt 5:48Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
  • Deut 32:30–31How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up?
  • Ps 100:5For Yahweh is good. His loving kindness endures forever, his faithfulness to all generations.
  • Jas 1:17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.
  • 1 Cor 10:4and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
  • 2 Sam 22:2–3and he said: “Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine;
  • Gen 18:25Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”
  • Jer 9:24But let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight,” says Yahweh.
  • John 1:14The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
  • Rom 2:2We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.
  • John 14:6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
  • Rom 3:5But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do.
  • Isa 25:1Yahweh, you are my God. I will exalt you! I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago, in complete faithfulness and truth.
  • Deut 32:18Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.
  • 1 Pet 2:6Because it is contained in Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, chosen, and precious: He who believes in him will not be disappointed.”
  • Ps 97:2Clouds and darkness are around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
  • John 5:22For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son,
  • Deut 32:15But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock of his salvation.
  • Job 34:10“Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness, from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.
  • Isa 28:16Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.
  • Hab 1:13You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously, and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,
  • Isa 32:2A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.
  • Ps 146:6who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever;
  • Jer 10:10But Yahweh is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King. At his wrath, the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to withstand his indignation.
  • Ps 99:4The King’s strength also loves justice. You do establish equity. You execute justice and righteousness in Jacob.
  • Jas 4:12Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?
  • 1 Sam 2:2There is no one as holy as Yahweh, For there is no one besides you, nor is there any rock like our God.
  • John 1:17For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
  • Ps 138:8Yahweh will fulfill that which concerns me; your loving kindness, Yahweh, endures forever. Don’t forsake the works of your own hands.
  • Rom 2:5But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God;
  • Job 35:14How much less when you say you don’t see him. The cause is before him, and you wait for him!
  • Ps 18:46Yahweh lives; and blessed be my rock. Exalted be the God of my salvation,
  • Ps 98:3He has remembered his loving kindness and his faithfulness toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (4)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Deuteronomy videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Deuteronomy 32:4YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on DeuteronomyMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).

How Deuteronomy 32:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.