So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Even as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
- KJV As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
- NKJV As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
- NASB Just as it is written: “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
- NLT In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Scripture sums up God's choice with the words, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. God set his covenant love on Jacob's line by sovereign grace.
Overview
Paul cites Malachi 1:2-3 to confirm God's electing purpose. In Hebrew idiom, loved and hated often express preference and rejection rather than emotional hatred, so the contrast highlights God's choosing of Jacob's line over Esau's. Faithful interpreters note that Malachi speaks of the nations descended from the two, yet Paul applies the principle to individual election as well. Either way, the point stands: God's saving love is freely given, not earned.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Mal 1:2–3“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,
- Deut 21:15If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other unloved, and both bear him sons, but the unloved wife has the firstborn son,
- Gen 29:31When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.
- Gen 29:33Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has given me this son as well.” So she named him Simeon.
- Luke 14:26“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple.
- Prov 13:24He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.
- Matt 10:37Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me;
- John 12:25Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 9:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.