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“I have shown love to you,” says the Lord, but you say, “How have you shown love to us?”

“Esau was Jacob’s brother,” the Lord explains, “yet I chose Jacob and rejected Esau.[a] I turned Esau’s[b] mountains into a deserted wasteland[c] and gave his territory[d] to the wild jackals.”[e]

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Footnotes

  1. Malachi 1:3 tn Heb “and I loved Jacob, but Esau I hated.” The context indicates this is technical covenant vocabulary in which “love” and “hate” are synonymous with “choose” and “reject” respectively (see Deut 7:8; Jer 31:3; Hos 3:1; 9:15; 11:1).
  2. Malachi 1:3 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  3. Malachi 1:3 tn Heb “I set his mountains as a desolation.”
  4. Malachi 1:3 tn Or “inheritance” (so NIV, NLT).
  5. Malachi 1:3 tn Heb “jackals of the wilderness.”

I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob,

And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

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Israel Doubts God’s Love

“I have loved(A) you,” says the Lord.

“But you ask,(B) ‘How have you loved us?’

“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob,(C) but Esau I have hated,(D) and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland(E) and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.(F)

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