myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

Isaiah 45:7

"I make peace, and create evil"

"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." Ra here is the opposite of shalom: calamity, woe. The Great Isaiah Scroll pairs "good" (tov) with evil instead of "peace"; the Cave 1 and Cave 4 copies are restored at that word. Jewish morning prayer quotes the verse but ends "…and creates all things" (b. Berakhot 11b). The Vulgate's "creans malum" and the KJV's "create evil" fueled long debates about God and evil.

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The oracle as first spoken or written8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)
  2. Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
  3. 1QIsa-b (1Q8), Qumran Cave 11st century BC – 1st century AD (reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
  4. 4QIsa-c (4Q57), Qumran Cave 41st century AD (reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
  5. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
Greek
  1. Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Isaiah
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. 8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)

    The oracle as first spoken or written

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. The oldest copies of Isaiah are the Qumran scrolls: the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a, about 125 BC, nearly complete), 1QIsa-b (1Q8) and some twenty other fragmentary manuscripts.

  2. c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)

    Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 45:7. Reads "making good (tov) and creating evil" where the Masoretic Text has "making peace (shalom) and creating evil"; "creating" is spelled with he for alef. Otherwise the differences are of spelling (fuller use of vowel letters) and small grammatical forms.

  3. 1st century BC – 1st century AD (reported)

    1QIsa-b (1Q8), Qumran Cave 1

    ◐ Contains part of itDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 45:7. A fragmentary copy: only parts of these verses survive, and in the transcription much of the passage is restored by the editors. The words at the disputed point ("peace" or "good") are restored by the editors, so this copy cannot decide it.

  4. 1st century AD (reported)

    4QIsa-c (4Q57), Qumran Cave 4

    ◐ Contains part of itDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 45:7. A fragmentary copy: only parts of these verses survive, and in the transcription much of the passage is restored by the editors. The disputed word is restored by the editors.

  5. Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    formans lucem et creans tenebras, faciens pacem et creans malum: ego Dominus faciens omnia hæc.

    Latin numbering: Isaiah 45:7. Jerome translated Isaiah from Hebrew (c. AD 400).

  6. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    יוֹצֵ֥ר אוֹר֙ וּבוֹרֵ֣א חֹ֔שֶׁךְ עֹשֶׂ֥ה שָׁל֖וֹם וּב֣וֹרֵא רָ֑ע אֲנִ֥י יְהוָ֖ה עֹשֶׂ֥ה כָל־אֵֽלֶּה׃

    Forming light and creating darkness, making peace (shalom) and creating calamity (ra): I, the LORD, do all these things

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 45:7.

  7. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.

  8. Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Isaiah

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    C’est moi qui ai préparé la lumière, qui ai formé les ténèbres, qui fais la paix, qui crée les maux; je suis le Seigneur Dieu, qui fais toutes ces choses.

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Isaiah 45:7. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check only); a C check needs Ziegler's Göttingen Isaiah or Rahlfs–Hanhart.

What changed, and why

Classification: manuscript variant (shalom / tov) in 1QIsa-a; a liturgical adaptation in Judaism; a lexical question (ra).

Some scholars read the verse against a dualism of two powers (perhaps Persian); others as the plain claim that nothing lies outside God's rule (compare Amos 3:6; Lamentations 3:38).

The library's Greek: "who make peace and create evils."

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documented1QIsa-a reads "good" for "peace" in 45:7. Described from a transcription.
  • Strongly supportedJewish liturgy changes the end of 45:7. b. Berakhot 11b; reported.
  • DisputedRa in 45:7 means moral evil. Most translate "calamity" or "woe."

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Isaiah 45: To His Anointed, to Cyrus →"Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden": God will open gates before him and give him hidden treasures, "though thou hast not known me," for Israel's sake and so that all may know "I am the Lord, and there is none else" (45:1–6). "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil" (v. 7). Let the heavens rain righteousness; woe to clay that argues with its potter; Cyrus will rebuild the city and free the exiles without payment (vv. 8–13). Nations will come and confess: "God is in thee… Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself" (vv. 14–17). God created the earth to be lived in, not as chaos; "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth… unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear" (vv. 18–25).
    • Investigation: The Great Isaiah Scroll →Found in a cave near the Dead Sea in 1947, the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a) is the only complete book of the Hebrew Bible among the Dead Sea Scrolls, about a thousand years older than the medieval codices behind printed Hebrew Bibles. It agrees with the Masoretic Text in most of its words and differs in thousands of small ways: spelling, grammar, scribal slips, corrections, and a few real variants. This investigation explains what the scroll is, how its differences are classified, and which ones matter.