1:2 “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 1:3 and rejected Esau.3 I turned Esau’s4 mountains into a deserted wasteland5 and gave his territory6 to the wild jackals.”
tnHeb “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).
4
tnHeb “his”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.