Descendants of Sarah^(A)

²⁸ Then the man said, “Your name^(A) will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,^[a](B) because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”^(C)

⁸ Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision.^(A) And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth.^(B) Later Isaac became the father of Jacob,^(C) and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.^(D)

² Sarah became pregnant and bore a son^(A) to Abraham in his old age,^(B) at the very time God had promised him.^{(C) 3} Abraham gave the name Isaac^[a](D) to the son Sarah bore him.

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

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)”

⁴ 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)

The Family of Abraham