¹³ Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”^[a](A)

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)”

The Right of the Firstborn

¹⁵ If a man has two wives,^(A) and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love,^(B)

³³ She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved,^(A) he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon.^[a](B)

Jacob’s Children

³¹ When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved,^(A) he enabled her to conceive,^(B) but Rachel remained childless.