unanimous that “love” and “hate” in this context refer to covenantal loyalty and covenantal disavowal, respectively (i.e., neither soteriology nor even “election,” generally, are at all in view). Scholars are also unanimous that “Jacob” and “Esau” in vv. 2b–3a are poetic references (by way of eponymous ancestors) to the two “brother” nations of Israel and Edom (i.e., that the oracle and Gen 25 are irrelevant to each other). God’s claim in Mal 1:2–5, then, is that in accordance with the vivid example