Prologue

1 In the land of Uz^(A) there lived a man whose name was Job.^(B) This man was blameless^(C) and upright;^(D) he feared God^(E) and shunned evil.^(F)

¹¹ This is what the Lord says:

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)