Malachi 1:1-5 - I Loved Jacob, But Esau I Hated

¹ The oracle (burdensome message) of the word of the Lord to Israel through [My messenger] Malachi.

² “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How and in what way have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I loved Jacob (Israel); ³ but [in comparison with My love for Jacob] I have hated Esau (Edom), and I have made his mountains a wasteland, and have given his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness.”

⁴ Though [impoverished] Edom says, “We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins.” Thus says the Lord of hosts, “They may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the Wicked Territory, the people against whom the Lord is indignant forever.” ⁵ Your own eyes will see this and you will say, “The Lord is great and shall be magnified beyond the border of Israel!”