The Bible contains explicit statements in which God claims responsibility for creating calamity, disaster, and harm. The most direct declaration comes from the prophet Isaiah, where God announces: "I form light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things."1 This is not an isolated statement. Multiple passages throughout the Hebrew Bible attribute disaster, adversity, and suffering directly to God's action.2, 3 These texts present a theological challenge for those who maintain that God is purely good and has no involvement in causing harm or suffering. The biblical writers, however, operated within a framework of radical divine sovereignty in which all events, good and harmful, ultimately originate from the one God.
The Isaiah 45:7 declaration
The most explicit biblical statement of God creating calamity appears in Isaiah 45:7. The passage, spoken by God through the prophet Isaiah, declares:
"I form light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things." Isaiah 45:7 (New King James Version)1
The verse employs a poetic structure of contrasting pairs. God forms light and creates darkness; God makes peace and creates calamity. The literary parallelism emphasizes comprehensive divine sovereignty over all reality, both positive and negative.4
The Hebrew word translated "calamity" in most modern versions is "ra" (רַע), one of the most common words in the Hebrew Bible for evil, harm, disaster, and adversity.5 It appears nearly 700 times in the Old Testament with meanings ranging from moral wickedness to physical harm, disaster, and suffering.6 This is the same word used in Genesis 2:9 for the "tree of knowledge of good and evil," in descriptions of moral wickedness throughout the Prophets, and in accounts of disasters and calamities that befall individuals and nations.5
The King James Version translates Isaiah 45:7 more literally: "I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."7 Many modern translations soften this to "calamity," "disaster," or "woe," but the Hebrew term is the standard word for evil in its broadest sense.4, 6 While "ra" can refer to physical calamity as distinct from moral evil, the word encompasses both meanings, and ancient Hebrew did not always sharply distinguish between disaster and moral evil in the way modern Western thought does.8
The verb "create" (Hebrew: "bara," בָּרָא) is particularly significant. This is the same verb used in Genesis 1:1 for God's creation of the heavens and the earth.9 It is used almost exclusively in the Hebrew Bible with God as the subject, indicating divine creative action.9 God does not merely allow, permit, or fail to prevent calamity; according to Isaiah 45:7, God actively creates it.
The context of Isaiah 45
Isaiah 45 appears in the section of Isaiah known as Deutero-Isaiah or Second Isaiah, generally dated to the Babylonian exile period of the 6th century BCE.10 The chapter addresses Cyrus, the Persian king who would conquer Babylon and allow the Jewish exiles to return home.11 God announces that He has anointed Cyrus for this purpose, even though Cyrus does not know the God of Israel.11
The declaration in verse 7 serves a specific theological purpose in this context. It asserts the absolute uniqueness and sovereignty of the God of Israel against the religious pluralism of the ancient Near East. Verses 5-6 repeatedly emphasize: "I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God."12 In a polytheistic environment where different gods were thought to control different domains, the prophet declares that Israel's God alone controls all reality, including both good and evil, peace and calamity.13
This radical monotheism required attributing all significant events to the one God. In polytheistic systems, disasters might be blamed on malevolent deities or chaos forces. But if there is only one God, that God must be responsible for everything that occurs, including disasters.13, 14 The theological development of monotheism in ancient Israel thus created what would later be called the problem of evil: if one all-powerful, good God controls everything, why does evil and suffering exist?15
Other biblical affirmations
Isaiah 45:7 is not an isolated statement. Multiple other biblical passages affirm that God causes or sends calamity and disaster.
Amos 3:6
The prophet Amos asks a series of rhetorical questions establishing cause-and-effect relationships, culminating in:
"If calamity comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?" Amos 3:6 (English Standard Version)2
The Hebrew text uses the same word "ra'ah" (the feminine form of "ra") for calamity or evil.16 The verse structure implies an obvious answer: of course the LORD has caused it. Just as a trumpet blast causes people to tremble and a trap catches a bird only when baited, disaster in a city does not occur without divine causation.17 The passage presents this as self-evident, not controversial. In the worldview of the prophet Amos, writing in the 8th century BCE, it was simply understood that disasters come from God.18
Lamentations 3:38
The book of Lamentations, written after the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon, includes this theological reflection:
"Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?" Lamentations 3:38 (New International Version)3
The verse appears in a section offering theological interpretation of Jerusalem's destruction. The author attributes both good and evil, both blessing and disaster, to the decree of God.19 The plural "calamities" or "evils" (Hebrew: "hara'ot") emphasizes multiple forms of disaster, all proceeding from God's word.20 This understanding provides the basis for the response in verse 39: "Why should any living mortal complain when punished for their sins?"21 If both good and calamity come from God, humans should accept suffering as divinely ordained discipline.
Job 2:10
When Job's wife urges him to "curse God and die" after losing everything, Job responds:
"Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" Job 2:10 (New International Version)22
The Hebrew word translated "trouble" is again "ra'ah," the same term used in Isaiah 45:7 and Amos 3:6.23 Job's statement affirms that both good and evil, both blessing and disaster, come from God's hand. The text commends this response, adding: "In all this, Job did not sin in what he said."22 Job's theology, accepting both good and evil from God, is presented as righteous.
Additional passages
Several other biblical texts attribute disasters, suffering, and death directly to God's action:
In 1 Samuel 2:6-7, Hannah's prayer declares: "The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts."24 God is the direct cause of death, poverty, and humiliation, not merely the provider of life, wealth, and exaltation.
Deuteronomy 32:39 records God's own declaration: "See now that I myself am he! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand."25 God claims to be the one who kills and wounds, not only the one who gives life and heals.
Ecclesiastes 7:14 offers practical wisdom based on divine sovereignty over both prosperity and adversity: "When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other."26 Both good times and bad times are God's creation, designed so that humans cannot predict their future and must depend on God.27
Biblical passages attributing calamity to God1, 2, 3, 22, 24, 25, 26
| Passage | Statement | Hebrew Term |
|---|---|---|
| Isaiah 45:7 | "I make peace and create calamity" | ra (רַע) |
| Amos 3:6 | "If calamity comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?" | ra'ah (רָעָה) |
| Lamentations 3:38 | "Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?" | hara'ot (הָרָעוֹת) |
| Job 2:10 | "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" | ra'ah (רָעָה) |
| 1 Samuel 2:6-7 | "The LORD brings death... sends poverty" | N/A (direct statements) |
| Deuteronomy 32:39 | "I put to death... I have wounded" | N/A (direct statements) |
| Ecclesiastes 7:14 | "God has made the one [prosperity] as well as the other [adversity]" | N/A (direct statement) |
The Hebrew word "ra"
Understanding the Hebrew word "ra" and its variants is crucial for interpreting these passages. The word appears approximately 700 times in the Hebrew Bible with a semantic range covering moral evil, wickedness, harm, disaster, calamity, adversity, and suffering.5, 6
The word can refer to moral evil, as in Genesis 6:5: "The LORD saw how great the wickedness (ra'ah) of the human race had become on the earth."28 It can refer to disaster or calamity, as in Exodus 32:14: "Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster (ra'ah) he had threatened."29 It can refer to physical harm, as in Genesis 31:52: "I will not go past this heap to your side to harm you (lera'ah) and you will not go past this heap and pillar to my side to harm me (lera'ah)."30
In many contexts, the word encompasses both physical disaster and moral evil simultaneously. When Jonah becomes angry that God did not destroy Nineveh, he complains: "That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity (hara'ah)."31 Here "ra'ah" refers to the disaster God threatened but also carries moral implications about divine justice and mercy.
The Hebrew Bible does not systematically distinguish between natural evil (disasters, suffering) and moral evil (wickedness, sin) in the way later Christian theology would. Both are encompassed by "ra" and its forms.8 This linguistic fact reflects a worldview in which suffering and sin, disaster and wickedness, are interconnected realities within God's sovereign governance of the world.
Some interpreters argue that when "ra" is attributed to God, it should be understood strictly as "calamity" or "disaster" without any connotation of moral evil. God creates disasters but not moral wickedness.32 However, the biblical text does not maintain this distinction consistently. The same word describes both moral evil and physical calamity, and passages like Isaiah 45:7 use the term without qualification. The prophet does not say God creates physical disasters but not moral evil; he says God creates "ra," using the standard Hebrew word for evil in all its forms.
Monotheism and divine causation
The biblical statements attributing calamity to God reflect the development of monotheism in ancient Israel. In the polytheistic worldview of the ancient Near East, different gods controlled different aspects of reality. Storms might come from one deity, fertility from another, war from another, and disasters from chaos forces or malevolent gods.33
Ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian religions saw multiple gods behind cosmic events, each with a sphere of influence corresponding to some aspect of nature. The gods were behind events but did not ultimately control all future outcomes.34 Disasters and evils could be attributed to conflicts among gods, to chaos forces not fully controlled by the gods, or to demons and evil spirits operating with some independence.
Israelite monotheism, particularly as it developed during and after the Babylonian exile, rejected this pluralism.13, 35 If there is only one God, and that God is sovereign over all reality, then everything that happens must ultimately come from that God. There is no independent evil force, no chaos beyond God's control, no malevolent deity causing disasters while the good God tries to prevent them.14
This creates what philosophers and theologians later called the problem of evil: if God is all-powerful and perfectly good, why does evil exist?15 The biblical authors, however, did not frame the issue in these terms. They affirmed God's goodness while simultaneously declaring that God creates calamity, sends disasters, and causes suffering. The tension that later theology would find problematic was apparently not problematic for the biblical writers. God's sovereign control over all events, including disasters, was seen as a source of comfort rather than a theological difficulty.36
The strict monotheism expressed in Isaiah 45:7 represents a theological development from earlier Israelite religion. Some scholars argue that early Israelite religion was better characterized as monolatry (worship of one God while acknowledging others exist) rather than strict monotheism (belief that only one God exists).35, 37 The movement toward strict monotheism occurred gradually, with prophets like Second Isaiah explicitly formulating the doctrine during the exile period.38
This theological development created the necessity of attributing all events, including disasters, to the one God. If there are no other gods and no independent evil powers, then when disaster strikes a city, the LORD must have caused it, as Amos declares.2 The price of monotheism is that God becomes responsible for everything, good and evil alike.
Later theological developments
The direct biblical statements that God creates calamity and causes disasters created difficulties for later theology, particularly in Christianity. Christian theologians, especially following Augustine in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, developed doctrines designed to absolve God of direct responsibility for evil while maintaining divine sovereignty and omnipotence.39
Augustine's most influential contribution was the doctrine of evil as privation (privatio boni). According to this view, evil is not a substance or entity that God created; rather, evil is the absence or corruption of good.40, 41 Just as cold is the absence of heat and darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of good. Since evil is not a positive reality, God did not create it. All that God created was good; evil entered through the free choices of creatures who turned away from the good.42
This doctrine was further developed by medieval theologians, particularly Thomas Aquinas, who integrated Neoplatonic philosophy with Christian theology to maintain that God creates all being, all being is good, and evil is not a being but a privation of the good that ought to be present in a being.43
In this theological framework, God permits evil but does not cause it. God gave creatures free will, and creatures misuse that freedom to choose evil. Natural evils like earthquakes and diseases are consequences of the Fall, corruptions of the originally good creation, not direct acts of God.44
This later theological development sits uncomfortably with the biblical texts examined here. Isaiah 45:7 does not say God permits calamity or that calamity is a privation of peace; it says God creates calamity, using the active verb "bara" that describes God's creative action.1 Amos 3:6 does not ask whether God allowed disaster to happen; it asks rhetorically whether God caused it, expecting the obvious answer "yes."2 Job does not accept calamity as a result of creaturely freedom corrupting God's good creation; he accepts it as something received directly from God's hand.22
The Hebrew Bible's theology of divine causation is more direct and less concerned with philosophical theodicy than later Christian theology. The biblical writers affirm that God causes both good and calamity, both prosperity and disaster, both life and death. This is presented not as a problem requiring philosophical resolution but as a declaration of God's comprehensive sovereignty. Later theological efforts to distance God from evil represent a development beyond, or in tension with, what the biblical texts actually say.45
Apologetic responses
Christian apologists have offered various defenses to explain biblical passages that attribute calamity to God. These responses attempt to reconcile the direct statements in passages like Isaiah 45:7 with later theological commitments to God's pure goodness and non-involvement in evil.
The "disaster, not moral evil" response
The most common apologetic response argues that "ra" in these passages refers to physical calamity or disaster, not moral evil or wickedness. God creates disasters as punishments for sin and to accomplish His purposes, but He does not create moral wickedness.32, 46
This response correctly notes that "ra" can refer to disaster or calamity rather than moral evil. However, it faces several difficulties. First, the Hebrew word does not maintain this strict distinction in biblical usage. The same word describes both moral wickedness and physical disasters, and the biblical writers do not consistently differentiate between them.8
Second, even if we grant that God only creates "disaster" rather than "moral evil," this does not fully resolve the theological problem. A God who actively creates disasters, sends plagues, causes famines, and brings death remains morally problematic from the standpoint of later theology that affirms God's perfect goodness and benevolence. Whether we call it "evil" or "disaster," the question remains: why does an all-powerful, perfectly good God create suffering?
Third, the Bible attributes much more to God than impersonal disasters. God sends evil spirits (1 Samuel 16:14), commissions lying spirits (1 Kings 22:22), hardens hearts to ensure disobedience (Exodus 4:21, 7:3), and incites people to sin (2 Samuel 24:1).47, 48, 49 These are not merely natural disasters; they involve God causing people to do evil or sending spiritual forces to deceive and harm. The distinction between "disaster" and "moral evil" does not adequately address the full range of what the Bible attributes to God.
The "permission, not causation" response
Some interpreters argue that when the Bible says God "creates" calamity or "causes" disaster, it means only that God permits these things to happen. God does not actively bring about disasters; He simply allows them to occur, perhaps by withdrawing His protection.50
This response cannot be sustained from the biblical text. The language of Isaiah 45:7 is active and direct: God "creates" (bara) calamity, using the same verb as for creating light.1 Amos 3:6 asks if calamity happens in a city "has not the LORD caused it?"—not "permitted it" but "caused it."2 Deuteronomy 32:39 has God declare "I put to death... I have wounded," not "I permit death and wounding."25 The biblical language consistently describes active divine causation, not passive divine permission.
Moreover, this distinction between causing and permitting, while important in later Christian theology, does not appear in the Hebrew Bible's treatment of these issues. The biblical writers operate with a concept of divine sovereignty in which God's permission and God's causation are not sharply distinguished. If God sovereignly controls all events and nothing happens without His decree, then God's permission is effectively God's causation from the standpoint of the biblical authors.36
The "judgment for sin" response
Another apologetic approach argues that the calamities God creates are always punishments for sin, expressions of divine justice rather than arbitrary evil. God brings disaster upon the wicked, but this is a righteous response to human rebellion, not evil on God's part.51
This response has some basis in biblical texts. Many of the calamities the Bible attributes to God are indeed described as punishments for sin. Lamentations 3:38-39 explicitly connects adversity from God with punishment for sins.3 The prophets regularly interpret national disasters as divine judgment for Israel's unfaithfulness.
However, this response does not fully address the issue. First, the Bible also attributes suffering to people who are not being punished for sin. The book of Job explicitly establishes that Job's suffering is not punishment for wickedness; Job is described as "blameless and upright" (Job 1:1), yet he accepts both good and calamity from God's hand.52 Ecclesiastes observes that disasters befall righteous and wicked alike.53
Second, even when disasters are punishments for sin, questions remain about proportionality and the suffering of the innocent. When God brings disaster upon a city or nation, children suffer along with adults, the poor along with the wealthy, the righteous remnant along with the guilty majority. The Bible itself raises these concerns, with Abraham questioning whether God will destroy the righteous with the wicked in Sodom (Genesis 18:23-25) and Ezekiel addressing the assumption that children are punished for their parents' sins (Ezekiel 18).54, 55
Third, this response does not address Isaiah 45:7 directly, which is not about punishment but about comprehensive divine sovereignty. God declares that He creates calamity just as He creates light and makes peace. This is a statement about God's nature and power, not primarily about punishment for sin.4
Implications for theology
The biblical statements that God creates calamity have significant implications for understanding the biblical concept of God. They reveal a theology of radical divine sovereignty in which God is directly responsible for all events, including harmful ones. This theology stands in tension with later Christian doctrines that emphasize God's pure goodness and distance God from evil and suffering.
For those who accept biblical authority, these passages require grappling with a more complex portrait of God than is often presented in popular theology. The biblical God is not only a source of blessing and salvation; this God also claims to create calamity, cause disasters, bring death, send poverty, and inflict suffering. Whether these actions are always justified by human sin, whether they serve ultimately good purposes, whether they reveal divine attributes like justice and sovereignty—these are theological questions that go beyond what the texts themselves assert.
The tension between these biblical statements and later theology raises questions about theological development. Christian theology after Augustine developed sophisticated doctrines to explain how God can be perfectly good while evil exists, doctrines involving free will, privation theory, and the distinction between God causing and God permitting evil.39, 40 These doctrines have philosophical merit and address real concerns about divine goodness. However, they represent developments beyond the simpler, more direct theology of texts like Isaiah 45:7.
The biblical passages examined here suggest that ancient Israelite theology was less concerned with absolving God of responsibility for evil and more concerned with affirming God's comprehensive sovereignty over all reality. In a context where people believed in many gods and cosmic forces, declaring that the one true God creates both light and darkness, both peace and calamity, was a statement of monotheism. There is no other power, no competing deity, no independent chaos—only the LORD who does all these things.
Whether this biblical theology is adequate or whether it requires supplementing with later theological developments is a question each interpreter must answer. But what the texts say is clear: according to multiple biblical passages, God claims to create calamity, cause disasters, and bring adversity as well as good. Any theology that claims biblical authority must reckon with these statements.