Malachi 1:1–4

1 The 1burden of the word of the Lord to Israel 2by Malachi.

Israel Beloved of God

2 “I ahave loved you,” says the Lord.

“Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’

Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?”

Says the Lord.

“Yet bJacob I have loved;

3 But Esau I have hated,

And claid waste his mountains and his heritage

For the jackals of the wilderness.”

4 Even though Edom has said,

“We have been impoverished,

But we will return and build the desolate places,”

Thus says the Lord of hosts:

“They may build, but I will dthrow down;

They shall be called the Territory of Wickedness,

And the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever.