“I have loved you,”(A) says the Lord.

But you ask: “How have You loved us?”

“Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?”(B) This is the Lord’s declaration. “Even so, I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.(C) I turned his mountains into a wasteland, and gave his inheritance to the desert jackals.”(D)

Though Edom says: “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild[a] the ruins,” the Lord of Hosts says this: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called a wicked country(E) and the people the Lord has cursed[b] forever.(F)

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Footnotes

  1. Malachi 1:4 Or will return and build
  2. Malachi 1:4 Or Lord is angry with

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)

Edom(G) may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild(H) the ruins.”

But this is what the Lord Almighty says: “They may build, but I will demolish.(I) They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord.(J)

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