²⁹ Once when Jacob was cooking some stew,^(A) Esau came in from the open country,^(B) famished. ³⁰ He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew!^(C) I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.^[a])^(D)

³¹ Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.^(E)”

³² “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

³³ But Jacob said, “Swear^(F) to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright^(G) to Jacob.

³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew.^(H) He ate and drank, and then got up and left.

So Esau despised his birthright.

Israel Doubts God’s Love

² “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)

¹³ Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”^[a](A)

¹⁶ See that no one is sexually immoral,^(A) or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.^(B)