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God has loved Jacob but not Esau

This is the message that the Lord told to Malachi.[a] Malachi knew that he must tell this message to the Israelites.

The Lord says, ‘I have loved you.’

But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’[b]

The Lord says, ‘I chose to love Jacob and his descendants. Esau was Jacob's brother. But I have not loved Esau and his descendants.[c]

Instead, I have caused trouble for Esau. I caused Esau's mountains to become a wilderness. Nobody uses that land any longer. Now there are only jackals in the land that belongs to Esau.’

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Footnotes

  1. 1:1 When we write Lord like this, it is a special name for God. Sometimes people write it as ‘Yahweh’, or as ‘Jehovah’. It is his own name that he told Moses. See Exodus 3:14. It means ‘I am who I am’. This shows that God has always been there and he always will be there.
  2. 1:2 God says that he loves the Israelites because they are his special people.
  3. 1:3 Esau and Jacob were brothers who were twins. Esau was born first. So he should have received God's special blessing. But Esau sold his blessing to Jacob.