Malachi 1:1-3

Amplified Bible

God’s Love for Jacob

1 The ^[a]oracle (burdensome message) of the word of the Lord to Israel through [My messenger] Malachi.

²“I have loved you,” says the Lord. ^[b]But you say, “How and in what way have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I loved Jacob (Israel); ³but [in comparison with My love for Jacob] I have hated Esau (Edom), and I have made his mountains a wasteland, and have given his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness.”^(A)

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Footnotes

Malachi 1:1 I.e. an urgent message the prophet is under compulsion to give.
Malachi 1:2 The first in a series of sarcastic questions spread throughout this book beginning with “But you say.”