Various Commentators on Isaiah 45:7

KJV Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

NKJ Isaiah 45:7 I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.'

NRS Isaiah 45:7 I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the LORD do all these things.

NIV Isaiah 45:7 I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.

ESV Isaiah 45:7 I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.

This is the conclusion of the whole oracle (cf. the link with 44:24 and the introductory note above) but in particular to verses 2–6. The review of the Cyrus period, with its stress on the sovereignty of God, is undergirded by this magnificent monergistic statement. Light and darkness are well established metaphors for the pleasant and the unpleasant; they are, of course also the regular sequence of things, and either can be the meaning here. The Lord is executively behind all the diversities of experience which life contains; he also ordains the order in which things happen, the course of experience. Prosperity is ´peace´, which, of course, includes well-being, prosperity, fulfillment, etc. (9:6‹5›), all that makes life rich and rewarding. The older translations made needless trouble by rendering ´I create evil´; the NIV correctly has create disaster. Out of about 640 occurrences of the word ra‛ (which ranges in meaning from ´nasty´ taste to full moral evil) there are 275 instances where ´trouble´ or ´calamity´ is the meaning. In every case the context must judge. In this passage, full of historical calamities coming on people through Cyrus, this is what ra‛ means. Light and darkness are typically Zoroastrian themes, and some have seized on this as evidence of a Persian milieu for this verse. But there is no ground for finding a reference to Zoroastrianism here, and in any case the texts on which Zoroaster based his light/darkness dualism go back to about 1200 BC. If Isaiah is attacking anything it is the inherent dualism of polytheism or the sinful dualism of the human heart, which both longs for the security of one only God and yet jibs at the rigour of saying with Job, ´Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble [ra‛]?´ (Jb. 2:10). Isaiah's intention is, however, not polemical but rather credal and comforting. This God, who is solely and sovereignly, determinatively and executively, in charge of everything and is the God who made all (44:24) and makes all (45:7), is the Holy One and fashioner of Israel (44:24), the redemptive Next-of-kin (45:1) of his people.

J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1993), 359.

The form in which this claim was cast in the old King James version could well prove disturbing, when it is said: "I make peace and create evil," although the Hebrew would allow for such a translation. But it is not the morally good and the morally evil that are being attributed to Yahweh, but things good and bad are said to lie totally in his power, as far as their physical aspects and consequences are concerned. The RSV version does full justice to the issues involved when it says: "I make weal and create woe." Note similar statements in Amos 3:6b; and Isa. 14:24-27. "I am the Lord who does all these things" aptly sums it all up, and obviously ties back to 44:24—obvious evidence of careful composition.

H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Isaiah (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1971), 2:122.

But we must not misinterpret this majestic statement by understanding it to mean that God is the cause of sin and moral evil. The word ra, used here, does not mean sin but the result and punishment of sin, i.e., sorrow, oppression and misery. In this sense Jeremiah says in Lamentations 3:38, "Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?" And does not Cyrus ask in the same sense: "Shall there be evil in the city which the Lord worketh not?

Harry Bultema, Commentary on Isaiah (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1981), 443.

Light and darkness can be interpreted to be phenomena in nature that God created (Gen 1), but there is no indication in the creation account that God created darkness. Therefore, it may be best to relate these two phenomena to the realm of history where God is understood as the Lord of what happens on each new day and every night. The other comparative contrast is between the spheres of “peace” (šālôm, NIV “prosperity”) and “disaster” (rā‘, NASB “calamity”; KJV “evil”). These are not abstract philosophical statements but practical claims about God’s control of everything that happens in history. The good times that bring peace, prosperity, and well-being are controlled by God and so are the terrible times when war, calamity, natural disasters, and death come upon people. God claims that he is the power and the director who “does, makes” all these things happen.

Gary V. Smith, Isaiah 40–66: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture (NAC 15B; Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing, 2009), 258.

The Hebrew word ra‘ has a wide range of meanings, much like the English word “bad.” Like “bad” it can refer to moral evil (“Hitler was a bad man”) or to misfortune (“I’m having a bad day”) or merely to that which does not conform to some potential, real or imagined (“That’s a bad road”). This is not the case with the common English equivalent for ra‘, “evil,” which almost always refers to moral wickedness. Thus if we read “I . . . create evil” (AV), we conclude that God causes people to make morally evil decisions. That this is not the correct translation of ra‘ in this circumstance is shown by the opposite term used, which is šālôm, “health, well-being, peace, good relations, good fortune.”

John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, 2 vols. NICOT (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), 2:204.