In Isaiah 45:7 (ESV):

I form light and create darkness,

  I make well-being and create calamity,
  I am the LORD, who does all these things.

The word "create" (01254) is the same word used in Genesis 1:1 (ESV):

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Nearly all the other uses of the word refer back to the moment of creation. Many of the other uses convey the idea of doing something entirely new as in Jeremiah 31:22. There are a handful of uses that follow totally separate meanings such as "choose", "cut down", "dispatch", "done", and "make fat". But as far as I can see, none of them besides this passage talk about creating something undesirable.

Further, it seems to me that "darkness" and "calamity" are not so much things in themselves as the absence of something else ("light" and "shalom"). Maybe I'm reading more recent metaphysics into this passage, but "create darkness" seems like something of an oxymoron.

What did Isaiah intend with this word choice?

In Isaiah 45:7 (ESV):

I form light and create darkness,

  I make well-being and create calamity,
  I am the LORD, who does all these things.

The word "create" (01254) is the same word used in Genesis 1:1 (ESV):

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Nearly all the other uses of the word refer back to the moment of creation. Many of the other uses convey the idea of doing something entirely new as in Jeremiah 31:22. There are a handful of uses that follow totally separate meanings such as "choose", "cut down", "dispatch", "done", and "make fat". But as far as I can see, none of them besides this passage talk about creating something undesirable.

Further, it seems to me that "darkness" and "calamity" are not so much things in themselves as the absence of something else ("light" and "shalom"). Maybe I'm reading more recent metaphysics into this passage, but "create darkness" seems like something of an oxymoron.

What did Isaiah intend with this word choice?