Discovery BoxMalachi 1:2-4 
Context1:2 “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. 1 I turned Esau’s 2 mountains into a deserted wasteland 3 and gave his territory 4 to the wild jackals.”
1:4 Edom 5 says, “Though we are devastated, we will once again build the ruined places.” So the Lord who rules over all 6 responds, “They indeed may build, but I will overthrow. They will be known as 7 the land of evil, the people with whom the Lord is permanently displeased.
1 tn Heb “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).
2 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “I set his mountains as a desolation.”
4 tn Or “inheritance” (so NIV, NLT).
5 sn Edom, a “brother” nation to Israel, became almost paradigmatic of hostility toward Israel and God (see Num 20:14-21; Deut 2:8; Jer 49:7-22; Ezek 25:12-14; Amos 1:11-12; Obad 10-12).
6 sn The epithet
7 tn Heb “and they will call them.” The third person plural subject is indefinite; one could translate, “and people will call them.”
