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What does Isaiah 45:7 mean when it says God creates evil?

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The Hebrew word translated "evil" in older Bibles is ra', which commonly means disaster or harm. Here it is set against shalom ("peace, well-being"). The verse says the LORD alone is in charge of everything that happens, good times and bad, including judgement. It is not mainly a statement that God causes moral wickedness, but Christians still disagree about how far God's control over hard events reaches.

What the text says

The verse itself. Isaiah 45:7 has two matching pairs of opposites: "I form the light and create the darkness; I bring prosperity [shalom] and create calamity [ra']. I, the LORD, do all these things." The King James Version renders the second pair "I make peace, and create evil." The Hebrew is the same in both. The difference comes from how each English version handled the word ra'.

The pairing shows what is meant. Hebrew poetry often names two opposite ends to mean "everything in between". Light and darkness covers all of the physical world. Shalom and ra' covers all of human fortune: peace and well-being on one side, disaster and ruin on the other. The opposite of shalom in this sense is calamity, not sin. If the prophet had wanted to talk about moral wickedness, the natural opposite would have been righteousness (tsedeq). And that word actually comes in the next verse as something God rains down (Isaiah 45:8).

The setting. Isaiah 45:1–7 is addressed to Cyrus, the Persian king. God says he will use Cyrus to bring down nations and to set exiled Israel free. The repeated point is "I am the LORD, and there is no other" (Isaiah 45:5, 45:6, 45:18). The verse claims there is only one God. Light and dark, rescue and ruin are not handed out by rival gods. One God rules over all of them. Isaiah uses "create" (bara') for events in history too: "They are created now, and not long ago" (Isaiah 48:7). So the verse is about God bringing events to pass, not about evil being built into the world at the first creation.

The rest of the Bible says the same. "When disaster [ra'ah] comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?" (Amos 3:6). "Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamity and good proceed?" (Lamentations 3:38). "Shall we accept good from God and not adversity?" (Job 2:10). "I put to death and I bring to life; I wound and I heal" (Deuteronomy 32:39). In Jeremiah 18:11 God says he is "planning disaster [ra'ah]" against Judah, and in Jonah 3:10 he holds back the ra'ah he had threatened against Nineveh once it repents. In passages like these the disaster is usually judgement in response to wrongdoing.

What the Bible says alongside it. The same scriptures say God is "too pure to look on evil" (Habakkuk 1:13) and that "God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone" (James 1:13). The Bible keeps two claims side by side: God is sovereign over hard events, and God is morally pure. Isaiah 45:7 is part of the first claim. It does not cancel the second.

Where readers differ

God brings calamity and judgement, not moral wickedness

Most commentators, Jewish and Christian, read ra' here as disaster because it is paired with shalom. They point to verses where God brings or holds back ra'ah as judgement, as with nations that repent or refuse to (Jeremiah 18:7–11, Jonah 3:10), and to the Cyrus setting, where the 'calamity' is the fall of Babylon and other nations. On this reading the verse says nothing about God causing sin.

Isaiah 45:7Amos 3:6Jeremiah 18:11Jonah 3:10Lamentations 3:38

God ordains all things, even evil acts, without being the author of sin

Many in the Reformed tradition (following Calvin) accept that the verse is mainly about calamity. They also read it alongside texts where God's purpose works through people's wicked choices: Joseph's brothers 'intended evil' but 'God intended it for good' (Genesis 50:20), and Jesus' killers did what God's 'hand and purpose had determined' (Acts 4:27–28). On this view nothing, moral evil included, happens outside God's decree, yet the guilt belongs to the people who sin.

Genesis 50:20Acts 2:23Acts 4:27Proverbs 16:4Isaiah 45:7

The verse is mainly a statement that there is only one God

Some scholars stress that the verse is addressed to a Persian king. They connect it, more cautiously, with Persian religion, which spoke of separate powers of light and darkness. On this reading the verse is not a theory of where evil comes from. Its point is that no second power exists. Every part of reality, including the frightening parts, is under the one LORD. They point to the repeated refrain 'there is no other'.

Isaiah 45:5Isaiah 45:18Isaiah 44:24Deuteronomy 32:39

God's judgements respond to what creatures freely choose

Christians who give more weight to human and angelic free will (Arminian, Wesleyan, Orthodox and others) read the disasters God 'creates' as responses to human sin, which he can withdraw if people repent. Moral evil, on this view, comes from creatures and not from God. They cite God relenting, his purity and his refusal to tempt anyone.

Jeremiah 18:7Jonah 3:10James 1:13Habakkuk 1:13Ezekiel 18:23

The words it turns on

  • רַע ra' (רָע)

    Bad in a broad sense: harmful, unpleasant, disastrous, ugly, and also morally wicked. Context decides which. Here it is paired with shalom, which points to calamity or misfortune.

    Drift: English 'evil' now mostly means moral wickedness. In 1611 it still commonly meant harm or trouble, as in 'sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof' (Matthew 6:34, KJV). So the KJV's 'create evil' sounds much more shocking now than it did then. Modern versions that say 'calamity' or 'disaster' are not censoring the text. They are bringing back the word's normal Hebrew sense.

  • שָׁלוֹם shalom (שָׁלוֹם)

    Wholeness, well-being, safety, prosperity. Much more than the absence of war.

    Drift: 'Peace' (KJV) can sound like inner calm or simply no fighting. 'Prosperity' (BSB) captures the sense of things going well, which makes it clear that its opposite is calamity.

  • בָּרָא bara' (בָּרָא)

    To create. In the Bible God is always the one who does it. In Isaiah it is also used for bringing about new events in history (Isaiah 48:7).

    Drift: English readers tend to hear 'create' only in terms of Genesis 1, as if God put evil into the world at the beginning. Here it is in the present tense of ongoing action, describing what God does in history.

  • חֹ֫שֶׁךְ choshekh (חֹשֶׁךְ)

    Darkness. Here it is the literal opposite of light ('or', H216), part of the created order, and also a picture of hard times.

    Drift: It is sometimes read as a symbol of sin, but in this verse it is simply paired with physical light.

What the Bible doesn't say

Isaiah 45:7 does not explain where sin came from, why God allows moral evil, or whether Satan exists or what part he plays. Nor does it say whether God sends each particular disaster or simply rules over the world in which disasters happen. Traditions honestly differ on how far God's sovereignty reaches into human choices. Jewish tradition has felt the weight of the verse too. The morning blessing in Jewish prayer (the Yotser) quotes it but changes "creates evil" to "creates all things" (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 11b). The later Jewish wisdom book Sirach takes a different line again, saying that "evil things" were created "for sinners" (Sirach 39:25).

Key verses

  1. Isaiah 45:7

    I form the light and create the darkness; I bring prosperity and create calamity. I, the LORD, do all these things.

    The verse in question: two pairs of opposites, light/darkness and shalom/ra', both under the one LORD.

  2. Isaiah 45:5

    I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God but Me. I will equip you for battle, though you have not known Me,

    The setting: 'I am the LORD, and there is no other.' The point is that there is only one God.

  3. Amos 3:6

    If a ram’s horn sounds in a city, do the people not tremble? If calamity comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?

    Says the same thing: disaster (ra'ah) on a city comes from the LORD, in the sense of judgement.

  4. Lamentations 3:38

    Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High?

    Calamity and good both come 'from the mouth of the Most High', the same pairing.

  5. Jeremiah 18:11

    Now therefore, tell the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I am planning a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways, and correct your ways and deeds.’

    God 'planning disaster' (ra'ah) against people who are doing wrong. This is ra' as judgement, not as sin.

  6. Jonah 3:10

    When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.

    God holds back the ra'ah he had threatened once people repent, so here the word plainly means calamity.

  7. Job 2:10

    “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept from God only good and not adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

    Good and adversity both received from God. Ra' again means misfortune.

  8. Deuteronomy 32:39

    See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.

    'I put to death and I bring to life; I wound and I heal.' One God over both sides.

  9. James 1:13

    When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.

    God tempts no one. A limit on reading Isaiah 45:7 as God causing sin.

  10. Habakkuk 1:13

    Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do You tolerate the faithless? Why are You silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

    God is too pure to look on evil. His moral purity is held alongside his sovereignty.

  11. Genesis 50:20

    As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people.

    People's evil intent and God's good purpose in the same event. Central to the sovereignty reading.

  12. Isaiah 48:7

    They are created now, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today. So you cannot claim, ‘I already knew them!’

    Shows Isaiah using 'create' (bara') for events in history, not only for the first creation.

Common points of confusion
Isaiah 45:7 says God is the source of moral wickedness and sin.
Ra' is paired with shalom (well-being), so it means calamity. The context is God's control over the rise and fall of nations. The verse does not say God commits or causes sin, and other passages deny that he tempts anyone (James 1:13).
Modern translations changed 'evil' to 'calamity' to tone the verse down.
The Hebrew ra' genuinely covers disaster and harm, and the KJV's 'evil' also carried that meaning in 1611. 'Calamity' is a faithful rendering of the sense here, not a cover-up.
The verse describes God putting evil into the world at creation.
The verbs describe ongoing action, and the setting is Cyrus and events in history (Isaiah 45:1–4). Isaiah uses 'create' for historical events (Isaiah 48:7).
The 'darkness' in the verse means sin or spiritual evil.
The darkness is paired with physical light, the most basic pair of opposites in creation. It may also suggest hard times, but nothing in the verse makes it a word for sin.

Sources: Hebrew text of Isaiah 45 (Westminster Leningrad Codex / Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia) · Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, entries for ra', shalom, bara' · Koehler-Baumgartner, Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT) · Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 11b (the Yotser blessing's rewording of Isaiah 45:7) · John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah: Chapters 40–66 (NICOT) · Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40–66 (Old Testament Library) · John Calvin, Commentary on Isaiah · Berean Standard Bible and King James Version translations

Discussion

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