Malachi 1 · Verse 2

Malachi 1:2

I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob,
Malachi 1:2, King James Version

Malachi 1:2 in other translations

BSB“I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you ask, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved,
WEB“I have loved you,” says the LORD. Yet you say, “How have you loved us?” “Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the LORD, “Yet I loved Jacob;
ASVI have loved you, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith Jehovah: yet I loved Jacob;
YLTI have loved you, said Jehovah, And ye have said, ‘In what hast Thou loved us?'
DARBYI have loved you, saith Jehovah; but ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith Jehovah, and I loved Jacob,
BBEYou have been loved by me, says the Lord. But you say, Where was your love for us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? says the Lord: but Jacob was loved by me,
WebsterI have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, In what hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,

What does Malachi 1:2 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
2. I have loved you--above other men; nay, even above the other descendants of Abraham and Isaac. Such gratuitous love on My part called for love on yours. But the return ye make is sin and dishonor to Me. This which is to be supplied is left unexpressed, sorrow as it were breaking off the sentence [Menochius], (De 7:8; Ho 11:1). Wherein hast thou loved us?--In painful contrast to the tearful tenderness of God's love stands their insolent challenge. The root of their sin was insensibility to God's love, and to their own wickedness. Having had prosperity taken from them, they imply they have no tokens of God's love; they look at what God had taken, not at what God had left. God's love is often least acknowledged where it is most manifested. We must not infer God does not love us because He afflicts us. Men, instead of referring their sufferings to their proper cause, their own sin, impiously accuse God of indifference to their welfare [Moore]. Thus Mal 1:1-4 form a fit introduction to the whole prophecy. Was not Esau Jacob's brother?--and so, as far as dignity went, as much entitled to God's favor as Jacob. My adoption of Jacob, therefore, was altogether by gratuitous favor (Ro 9:13). So God has passed by our elder brethren, the angels who kept not their first estate, and yet He has provided salvation for man. The perpetual rejection of the fallen angels, like the perpetual desolations of Edom, attests God's severity to the lost, and goodness to those gratuitously saved. The sovereign eternal purpose of God is the only ground on which He bestows on one favors withheld from another. There are difficulties in referring salvation to the election of God, there are greater in referring it to the election of man [Moore]. Jehovah illustrates His condescension and patience in arguing the case with them.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 2 Was not Esau Jacob's brother? - Have I not shown a greater partiality to the Israelites than I have to the Edomites? I loved Jacob - My love to Jacob has been proved by giving him greater privileges and a better inheritance than what I have given to Esau.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Malachi 1:1-5

All advantages, either as to outward circumstances, or spiritual privileges, come from the free love of God, who makes one to differ from another. All the evils sinners feel and fear, are the just recompence of their crimes, while all their hopes and comforts are from the unmerited mercy of the Lord. He chose his people that they might be holy. If we love him, it is because he has first loved us; yet we all are…

Read the full comment on Malachi 1:1-5 →

Malachi 1:2 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

אָהַ֤בְתִּי'a.Hav.tiI have lovedH157
אֶתְכֶם֙'et.Khem<obj.> youH853
אָמַ֣ר'a.Marhe saysH559
יְהוָ֔הYah.wehYahwehH3068
וַאֲמַרְתֶּ֖םva.'a.mar.Temand you sayH559
בַּמָּ֣הba.Mah<in> how?H4100
אֲהַבְתָּ֑נוּ'a.hav.Ta.nuhave you loved usH157
הֲלוֹא\־ha.lo'-¿ notH3808
אָ֨ח'ach[did] a brotherH251
עֵשָׂ֤ו'e.SavEsauH6215
לְיַֽעֲקֹב֙le.ya.'a.Ko[belong] to JacobH3290
נְאֻם\־ne.'um-[the] utterance ofH5002
יְהוָ֔הYah.wehYahwehH3068
וָאֹהַ֖בva.'o.Havand I lovedH157
אֶֽת\־'et-<obj.>H853
יַעֲקֹֽב\׃ya.'a.KoJacobH3290

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Malachi 1:2

  • Jeremiah 31:3

    The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

  • Isaiah 41:8-9

    But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.

  • Deuteronomy 10:15

    Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.

  • Romans 9:10-13

    And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

  • Malachi 3:7-8

    Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

  • Isaiah 43:4

    Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.

  • Deuteronomy 4:37

    And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt;

  • Deuteronomy 7:6-8

    For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

  • Deuteronomy 32:8-14

    When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: …

  • Malachi 3:13-14

    Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?

  • Romans 11:28-29

    As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

  • Malachi 2:17

    Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
I have.The prophet shows in these verses (ver. 2-5) how much Jacob and the Israelites were favoured by Jehovah, more than Esau and the Edomites. Through every period of the history of Jacob's posterity, they could not deny that God had remarkably appeared on their behalf; but he had rendered the heritage of Esau's descendants, by wars and various other means, barren and waste for ever.
De 7:6-8; 10:15; 32:8-14; Isa 41:8,9; 43:4; Jer 31:3; Ro 11:28,29
Wherein.
6,7; 2:17; 3:7,8,13,14; Jer 2:5,31; Lu 10:29
yet I.
Ge 25:23; 27:27-30,33; 28:3,4,13,14; 32:28-30; 48:4; Ro 9:10-13

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Malachi 1:1

    The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

  • Malachi 1:2

    I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob,

  • Malachi 1:3

    And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

Read all of Malachi 1

Malachi 1:2 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Yo os he amado, dice Jehová: y dijisteis: ¿En qué nos amaste? ¿No era Esaú hermano de Jacob, dice Jehová, y amé á Jacob,
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Je vous ai aimés, dit l’ Éternel; et vous dites: En quoi nous as-tu aimés? Ésaü n’était-il pas frère de Jacob? dit l’ Éternel; et j’ai aimé Jacob;
German
Elberfelder 1871		Ich habe euch geliebt, spricht Jehova; aber ihr sprechet: "Worin hast du uns geliebt?" War nicht Esau der Bruder Jakobs? spricht Jehova, und ich habe Jakob geliebt;
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Dilexi vos, dicit Dominus, et dixistis: In quo dilexisti nos? Nonne frater erat Esau Jacob? dicit Dominus: et dilexi Jacob,