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

4 Though Edom says, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuildB the ruins,” the Lord of Armies says this: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called a wicked countryh and the people the Lord has cursedC forever.i 5 Your own eyes will see this, and you yourselves will say, ‘The Lord is great, even beyondD the borders of Israel.’j