ABC:Lamentations 3

Verse 38

The EvilBible claims a contradiction exists here, and makes the following comments (italicized).

“ God is the author of evil

ABC:Lamentations 3:38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

ABC:Jeremiah 18:11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

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

ABC:Amos 3:6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?

ABC:Ezekiel 20:25 Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;

God is not the author of evil

ABC:1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

ABC:Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

ABC:James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

”

As pointed out by the Scofield Study Bible III in its note for Isaiah 45:7, the Hebrew word ra translated as "evil" in places like Isaiah 45:7, Jeremiah 18:11, and Amos 8:6 would be better translated as calamity, and carries the idea of suffering or punishment. Indeed, Isaiah 45:7 when examined reveals this, for light is indeed the opposite of darkness, but the opposite of peace is not evil, but chaos or calamity.

“ 45:7 create disaster. God is not the author of sin (Hab. 1:13; 2 Tim. 2:13; Tit. 1:2; Jas. 1:13; 1 Jn. 1:5). One of the meanings of the Hebrew word ra carries the idea of adversity or calamity, and it is evidently so employed here. God has made sorrow and wretchedness to be the sure fruits of sin.

-The Scofield Study Bible III, Oxford University Press

”

Jeremiah 18:11 when read in context with the surrounding verses becomes even more apparent that God is not doing evil in the sense of unrighteousness but in the sense of calamity, or in other words producing just punishment for the wicked. Thus God says that if nations turn from their evil He will repent of the evil He'd planned to do to them (v. 8). Likewise God says that if a nation God had planned good for does evil, then because they have done evil, God will repent of the good He'd planned to do for their benefit (vv. 9-10).

“ Jeremiah 18:7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. ”

As for Lamentations 3:38 it is a rhetorical question, and when read in context makes clear that the "evil" being referred to is simply just punishment for a person's evil deeds.

“ ABC:Lamentations 3:37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? ”

The context of Ezekiel 20:25 also makes plain that God is not doing evil in the sense of unrighteousness but rendering a just judgment upon evildoers. Israel at the time was performing heinous idolatry which included the abominable sin of sacrificing their own children alive to idols like Baal and Molech, which was why God punished them with ra, which while translated as "evil" by the KJV would better be translated as "calamity" or "affliction."

“ ABC:Ezekiel 20:21 Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.
22 Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth.
23 I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries;
24 Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols.
25 Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;
26 And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord.
27 Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me.
28 For when I had brought them into the land, for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering: there also they made their sweet savour, and poured out there their drink offerings.
29 Then I said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go? And the name whereof is called Bamah unto this day.
30 Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations?
31 For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be enquired of by you. ”