Malachi 1:2-5
Christian Standard Bible
2 “I have loved you,”(A) says the Lord.
Yet you ask, “How have you loved us?”
“Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” (B) This is the Lord’s declaration. “Even so, I loved Jacob, 3 but I hated Esau.(C) I turned his mountains into a wasteland, and gave his inheritance to the desert jackals.”(D)
4 Though Edom says, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild[a] the ruins,” the Lord of Armies says this: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called a wicked country(E) and the people the Lord has cursed[b] forever.(F) 5 Your own eyes will see this, and you yourselves will say, ‘The Lord is great, even beyond[c] the borders of Israel.’(G)
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Malachi 1:2-5
New English Translation
2 “I have shown love to you,” says the Lord, but you say, “How have you shown love to us?”
“Esau was Jacob’s brother,” the Lord explains, “yet I chose Jacob 3 and rejected Esau.[a] I turned Esau’s[b] mountains into a deserted wasteland[c] and gave his territory[d] to the wild jackals.”[e]
4 Edom[f] says, “Though we are devastated, we will once again build the ruined places.” So the Lord of Heaven’s Armies[g] responds, “They indeed may build, but I will overthrow. They will be known as[h] the land of evil, the people with whom the Lord is permanently displeased. 5 Your eyes will see it, and then you will say, ‘May the Lord be magnified[i] even beyond the border of Israel!’”
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- Malachi 1:3 tn Heb “and I loved Jacob, but Esau I hated.” The context indicates this is technical covenant vocabulary in which “love” and “hate” are synonymous with “choose” and “reject” respectively (see Deut 7:8; Jer 31:3; Hos 3:1; 9:15; 11:1).
- Malachi 1:3 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Malachi 1:3 tn Heb “I set his mountains as a desolation.”
- Malachi 1:3 tn Or “inheritance” (so NIV, NLT).
- Malachi 1:3 tn Heb “jackals of the wilderness.”
- Malachi 1:4 sn Edom, a “brother” nation to Israel, became almost paradigmatic of hostility toward Israel and God (see Num 20:14-21; Deut 2:8; Jer 49:7-22; Ezek 25:12-14; Amos 1:11-12; Obad 10-12).
- Malachi 1:4 sn The epithet Lord of Heaven’s Armies occurs frequently as a divine title throughout Malachi (24 times total). This name (יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת, yehvah tsevaʾot), traditionally translated “Lord of hosts” (so KJV, NAB, NASB; cf. NIV NLT “Lord Almighty”; NCV, CEV “Lord All-Powerful”), emphasizes the majestic sovereignty of the Lord, an especially important concept in the postexilic world of great human empires and rulers. For a thorough study of the divine title, see T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 123-57.
- Malachi 1:4 tn Heb “and they will call them.” The third person plural subject is indefinite; one could translate, “and people will call them.”
- Malachi 1:5 tn Or “Great is the Lord” (so NAB; similar NIV, NRSV).
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