I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord that do all these things.
Ibn Ezra
I form the light, etc. Things which are opposite to each other are mentioned in this verse. ובורא חשך And causeth darkness. ברא has here the same meaning as גזר to decree; for darkness is nothing by itself, it is but the absence of light. The same is to be said war, illness. But I. E. explains that these evils are but a certain relation of existing beings to each other; and finds the verb to decree or to command to be more applicable to them than the verb to create. concerning ובורא רע And causeth evil. By evil war is meant as the opposite of peace, or the sickness under which man labours, as being at war with his constitution. These antitheses are used to indicate that in the same way God will strengthen Cyrus and weaken the king of Babylon.
Hebrew and Aramaic words are the commentator’s citations of the sacred text; the English translation that follows each is the translator’s.
Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.