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) 3} 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)”

God’s Sovereign Choice

⁶ It is not as though God’s word^(A) had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.^{(B) 7} Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”^{[a](C) 8} In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children,^(D) but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.^{(E) 9} For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”^[b](F)

¹⁰ Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.^{(G) 11} Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad^(H)—in order that God’s purpose^(I) in election might stand: ¹² not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”^{[c](J) 13} Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”^[d](K)

¹⁴ What then shall we say?^(L) Is God unjust? Not at all!^{(M) 15} For he says to Moses,

¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.^{(O) 17} For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”^{[f](P) 18} Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.^(Q)