HEBREW WORD STUDY – TRANSMUTATION – QALAL קלל Qop Lamed Lamed

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

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

Jeremiah 32:42: “For this is what the LORD says: Just as I have brought all this great disaster on this people, so I will bring on them all the good I have promised them.”

Deuteronomy 11:26: “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse.”

The first three study verses all clearly show that God Himself is saying that he creates evil, calamity, and disaster. Now it is my understanding that these three different words are all bad. We do not like evil, calamity, and disaster. But God is saying He is the author of these things.

That fourth verse in our list of study verses is even harsher, God is setting before Israel not only a blessing but a curse. Does God bring curses on the world? Our Torah Portion Study on our online Learning Channel dealt with this matter of God not only allowing evil but will actually bring it about.

I have heard many Christian approaches to this subject. Most just outrightly deny that God will curse or bring about evil which calls into question the above study verses. Others talk about a permissive tense in Hebrew which does not exist. Others explain it by saying God operates in different dispensations and the Old Testament was a different time when God related to man differently bringing evil upon people where today we are in a dispensation of grace where He will not bring any evil to anyone. He is not the author of calamity, evil, disaster, or curses today. Despite the fact that He Himself says He never changes, Malachi 3:6 and James 1:17 to use both the Old and New Testament.

In studying the Jewish Talmud and Midrash, as well and the Targum I found another very interesting theory that makes a lot more sense and does not call into question the authority of Scripture.

It is only fair to warn you that this is not the complete study I did on this matter. That is found on our Learning Channel available only to our subscribers. This is just a brief sample.

The key to this is found in Deuteronomy 11:26 “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse.” The important word in this verse is the word “see.” Some translations say behold or look and most of your paraphrases just ignore the word, I guess they assume it is unimportant. But it is in the Bible and if it is there it is there for a reason and not unimportant. The word in Hebrew used here for seeing is ra’ah spelled Resh Aleph Hei. It sounds almost identical to the word ra’ah spelled Resh Ayin Hei which is the word for evil. In my study on our Learning Channel, I go into details on the ten different ra words used for evil in the Old Testament. In Hebrew, the sages say that when two words sound the same there is a relationship between the two words. So what is the relationship between seeing and evil? Ra’ah is seeing both in the physical realm and the spiritual. God is granting us the ability to see blessings in the spiritual realm where they can be transformed into a curse or something evil.

In the Mishnah under Laws of Repentance 5:1-3 the sages teach that freedom of choice has been granted to every person. If they desire to turn toward good and live a life according to the will, plan, and desires of God, they are enabled by God to do this. The ability is in their hands. But if they desire to turn toward an evil path and wickedness, the ability to do that is in their hands.

In Deuteronomy 11:29 and again in Joshua 8:30-35 God instructs Israel to divide into two groups, six tribes in each group. One group were to stand on Mt. Gerizim and the second group of six tribes was to stand on Mt. Ebal. Between the two mountains was a valley which the town of Shechem would one day stand. There the priest would form a circle around the Ark of the Covenant. They would recite twelve moral principles, both the positive and the negatives aspects of each principle. The Talmud in Sotah 32a tells us that in those days Mt. Gerizim was fertile and plush and Mt. Ebal was rocky and dry. When they recited the positive they all faced Mt. Gerizim and when they recited the negative they faced Mt. Ebal.

This was to demonstrate that upon entering the Promised Land God would give them both a blessing and curse. In other words for every blessing God gave, the people would have a choice as to whether to use the blessings as an opportunity to serve God and mankind or to take that same blessing and use it as a curse to meet their own selfish desires.

The word in Hebrew for curse that is used here is qalal which really means diminishing or reducing. The Targum which is the Aramaic Jewish translation of the Old Testament uses the word lotin which means to transform or transmute. In other words, God gave a blessing but every blessing from God can be transformed into something evil. A blessing can become a curse.

If you think about it, practically all evil coming from the heart of man is the result of a blessing that man has chosen to use for selfish reasons rather than godly reasons. A person blessed with exceptional intellect can use it to create a cure for the COVID 19 or use it to create COVID 20. A blessing or a curse. One with great leadership ability can lead a nation to a knowledge of God or lead a nation into anarchy. A blessing or a curse.

In other words, God does not create evil, He only created the capacity in man to turn His blessings into evil by giving him a free choice. God does not give curses only the option to transform his blessings into curses. God does not create evil only man can create evil through the blessings God gave him.

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