Tool Alpha
The Contradiction Desk
Claimed Bible contradictions, stated the way they circulate, each with one diagnosis and the evidence for it: the Hebrew, the Greek, the manuscripts.
I make peace, and create evil
In the King James, God says he makes peace and creates evil. The Hebrew word ra covers disaster as well as wickedness, and most modern versions read calamity or disaster.
Isaiah 45:7, in every translation this tool compares.
The real question: does Isaiah say God makes wickedness, or something else? The report said the new owner brought something bad on the town. Did he do wrong, or did he bring hard times?
Isaiah 45:7 in the King James has God say I make peace, and create evil. Psalm 5:4 says God has no pleasure in wickedness, and 1 John 4:8 says God is love. A good God does not create evil.
The Hebrew word is ra. Strong's, as carried in the site's word study data, defines it as bad or evil, natural or moral, and its list of King James renderings includes adversity, affliction, calamity, distress, harm, misery and trouble as well as evil and wicked. Bible Hub's parallel page shows the split: the King James, the JPS Tanakh of 1917 and Brenton's Septuagint read evil; the ESV and NKJV read calamity; the NIV, NASB and CSB read disaster; the NLT reads bad times; the NRSV reads woe. In the verse itself ra stands opposite peace, as darkness stands opposite light. Reading that pairing as pointing to disaster rather than wickedness is an inference drawn here, though it is the reading the modern versions take.
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
The Skeptic's Annotated Bible, under "Is God the creator of evil?", lists Isaiah 45:7 with 1 Kings 14:10, 2 Kings 6:33, Jeremiah 18:11, Job 2:10, Lamentations 3:38 and Amos 3:6, against Psalm 5:4 and 1 John 4:8. At full strength the case does not depend on the word: these passages have God bringing ruin on cities and houses, and calamity sent by God is still a harm sent by God.
The ESV Study Bible reads the verse as saying that the Lord's creative will and wise purposes stand behind everything, so his people should not lose heart when history seems to run against his promises. The CSB Study Bible says he controls the difficult things in history as well as the good ones.
The translation narrows evil to disaster. It does not remove what the verse claims, that God stands behind disaster, and the harmonizing sources do not try to remove it; they affirm it. Whether that fits with God's goodness is the problem of evil, not a translation question, and this entry does not settle it.
Not a claim that the verse is mild. Disaster from God is a strong claim. The entry says only that the verse is not about God doing wickedness.
- Bible Word Study (jayms.com tool data), Strong's H7451
- Bible Hub, Isaiah 45:7 parallel versions, https://biblehub.com/isaiah/45-7.htm
- ESV Study Bible, note on Isaiah 45:7
- CSB Study Bible, note on Isaiah 45:5-7
- The Skeptic's Annotated Bible, Is God the creator of evil?, https://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/evil.html
- King James Version, Isaiah 45:7
