Did God create evil (Isaiah 45:7)?

from the old testament

• The Hebrew word rah, found in Isaiah 45:7, has a range of meanings that can include both moral and natural evil (such as wars, earthquakes, and the like). Its translation, then, is context-specific.
• For example, Genesis 38:7 reads, “But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked [rah] in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD put him to death.” Contextually, this refers to Er as evil or wicked. Conversely, Amos 3:6 says, “Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster [rah] come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?” In this case, the “disaster” is not necessarily a moral evil but rather a calamity.
• Returning to Isaiah 45:7, the KJV is one of the few English translations that render this as “evil,” saying, “I make peace, and create evil.” Most modern English translations are closer to “I make well-being and create calamity” (ESV).
• In this context, “calamity” is the better reading. That verse contrasts light and dark and shalom and rah. This means opposite ideas are intended. Shalom means peace (translated in the ESV as “well-being”). Given the fact that the rest of this verse and the surrounding context are all about natural elements, this shalom refers to a life of peace as opposed to peace with God. The opposite, then, would be closer to calamity, the upheaval of shalom in this life.
• However, even if one understood this more broadly, evil is not a created thing. Evil is the absence or deviation from God’s goodness. When He created, everything was “very good” (Genesis 1:31), meaning nothing deviated from His goodness. There was no evil. It was our rebellion (Genesis 3:1–7) and Satan’s rebellion (e.g., Isaiah 14:12–15) that introduced moral evil and, subsequently, natural evil.
• Because of this, theologians distinguish between God ordaining all things (Proverbs 16:33), including evil (Genesis 50:20), from God creating evil itself, for which Scripture holds us (and Satan) firmly responsible.

from the new testament

• God is perfectly good. John said, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). In that letter, John used “light and darkness” to refer to normal goodness and moral evil. By saying that in Him is no darkness at all, He was saying that God is completely without evil (cf. Deuteronomy 32:4).
• Rather, it was our rebellion against God that led to sin entering the world (Romans 5:12), including the corruption of creation (Romans 8:20). Thus, moral evil and natural evil are caused by us, not God.
• Indeed, we learn that evil doesn’t even come into God’s mind, nor does He cause anyone to commit evil (James 1:13–17). Instead, all evil comes from within us (cf. Mark 7:21–23).
• Though God does not cause evil, even natural evil, in the sense of being the primary cause, He does ordain it at times and allows it at all times since He is sovereign over all things, including evil. But for believers, He uses “all things [to] work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

implications for today

Does God cause evil? Does He cause natural disasters, crimes, sickness, suffering, wars, or personal tragedy? These are some of the hardest questions people ask when life feels chaotic or painful. Scripture doesn’t avoid the tension; it shows a God who is fully good, fully sovereign, and yet never the author of moral evil, even while ruling over a broken world.

The most reliable way to handle such questions is to answer them the way Scripture addresses them. It never makes excuses for what God ordains, nor does it blame Him. We must strive to speak the same way.

We can learn a lot from Job, who was afflicted with both moral evil, through the theft of his belongings, and natural evil, through storms that killed his children (Job 1–2). As a righteous man (Job 1:1), Job questioned God’s goodness in allowing such evil, desiring a face-to-face meeting with God to sort it all out (Job 13:3). God answered him, but He never explained why those specific tragedies occurred. Did God create the evil in Job’s life? No—Satan did, sinful people did, and a fallen world did. Yet none of it happened outside of God's sovereign permission and purpose.

How then should we respond? Not by accusing God of evil, nor by pretending we can fully understand His ways, but by trusting that the God who rules over all things is perfectly good in all He does. Like Job, we may not receive all the answers we want, but we can rest in the character of the One who sits on the throne. When we cannot understand His purposes, we must cling to His goodness, knowing that the Judge of all the earth always does what is right (Genesis 18:25).