1 The[1] oracle (burdensome message) of the word of the LORD to Israel through [My messenger] Malachi.

2 "I have loved you," says the LORD.[2] But you say, "How and in what way have You loved us?" "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD. "Yet I loved Jacob (Israel);

3 but [in comparison with My love for Jacob] I have hated Esau (Edom), and I have made his mountains a wasteland, and have given his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness."