⁸ Then he asked, “By which way shall we march?” Jehoram answered, “By the way of the wilderness of Edom.”

Israel Preferred to Edom

² “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob,^{(A) 3} but I have hated Esau; I have made his hill country a desolation and his heritage a desert for jackals.^(B)

⁴ From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea,^[a] to go around the land of Edom, but the people became discouraged on the way.^(A)