THE LORD’S LOVE FOR ISRAEL

1 A pronouncement:a

The word of the Lordb to Israel throughc Malachi.A

2 “I have loved you,”d says the Lord.

Yet you ask, “How have you loved us?”

“Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?”e This is the Lord’s declaration. “Even so, I loved Jacob, 3 but I hated Esau.f I turned his mountains into a wasteland, and gave his inheritance to the desert jackals.”g