Malachi 1:2-5 Rebuke 1: A Failure to recognize God’s love.

In this first section we have the first rebuke against the people of Israel who have failed to see that God loves them. It begins with the first verbal exchange. It takes the shorter form (discussed in 1.2.1). Malachi begins with a statement: “I have loved you” (Malachi 1:2a) and it is followed by an objection, the people are presumably not seeing how it is that God is loving them (Malachi 1:2b). This is followed by a defense of the first statement (Malachi 1:2c-4), and the section concludes with the appropriate response to God’s love (Malachi 2:5).

Malachi 1:2-4 Defense: You can see that I love you by how I hated Esau

To show that the Lord loves Jacob, the focus is brought to Esau. The Lord makes the following statement: “I have loved Jacob and Esau I have hated.” In his sovereignty God has chosen Jacob over Esau (Genesis 25:23). Verses 3 and 4 develop the theme of God’s rejection of Esau, which is recurrent in the Prophets (Isa 11:14; 34:5–6; Jer. 49:7–22; Eze. 25:12–14; 35:15; Joel. 3:19; Am. 1:11; and all of Obadiah).[1]

Concerning God’s hatred, Targum Jonathan translates it with רַחֵיקִית to be distant. This takes it to mean God’s hatred is a form of neglect. It is difficult to take it this way when the following verses describe the Lord opposing Esau. God’s hatred is manifested with the wayyiqtols which show a sequence in the events that follow.[2] First וָאָשִׂים אֶת־הָרָיו הָרָיו שְׁמָמָה the Lord is saying “I will place his mountains desolation”. It should probably be understood “for desolation” but a word is missing, which could be a sign of poetry. Secondly וְאֶת־נַחֲלָתוֹ לְתַנּוֹת מִדְבָּר “his inheritance to jackals wilderness”, again we have the omission of some words that would likely be present in prose. These expressions are hard to understand and we find textual variants because of the difficulty in comprehension. The Vulgate translates לְתַנּוֹת as dragon or serpent because they took a different root: תַּנִּין , the Septuagint has “gift”, taking the root נָתַן. It is not that they have different vorlage but rather it is a mistake in the translation. The Targum goes further in its interpretation. It seeks to explain the figures of speech, interpreting “to the jackals of the wilderness” with “desolation of the wilderness” it is clear that the place described is not habited if there are wild beasts.

Verse 4 continues with what it looks like for the Lord to hate Esau. Edom says רֻשַּׁשְׁנוּ “we are beaten down”, וְנָשׁוּב וְנִבְנֶה חֳרָבוֹת but they are determined: “and we will return and we will build ruins” again the article is missing but it should be “the ruins”. In response, the Lord says: הֵמָּה יִבְנוּ וַאֲנִי אֶהֱרוֹס they are building, which has an ongoing aspect marked by the imperfect יִבְנוּ, and God is tearing down also has an ongoing sense, so as much as Edom builds, the Lord is tearing down.[3] We see that God’s goes beyond him being distant, as he is in the process of actively destroying. God’s hatred of Edom is visible to the nations. First וְקָרְאוּ לָהֶם גְּבוּל רִשְׁעָה literally “they will call them border of wickedness. The verb “to call” is active and plural, maybe referring to other people groups as this verse deals at a “people” level. The people will be called אֲשֶׁר־זָעַם יְהוָה עַד־עוֹלָם which translates "whom the Lord is indignant forever.”

Malachi 1:5 Israel will respond positively and God will be praised.

There was a change from the second person to the third to talk about what it meant for God to love Israel. The Lord talked about his hatred for Esau in the third person. Now, in this final component, the prophet returns to the second person. In response to God’s work against Esau, Israel will see and will say: “the Lord is great beyond the border of Israel” יִגְדַּל is in the imperfect that it is not referring to something complete,[4] the statement is a response to what Israel sees outsides its borders, the Lord in his actions against Edom shows himself to be great outside the borders of Israel. This is a significant statement when we deal with groups of people worshipping local deities, the Lord is Lord of all things, and not limited to one place, the worship given to the Lord is greater than what one nation can give as it is beyond the borders of Israel.




[1] Alden, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Daniel and the Minor Prophets, 709–710.


[2]Wilhelm Gesenius, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, ed. E. Kautzsch (Mineola: Dover Publications, 2006), 326.


[3] Gesenius, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, 313.


[4] Gesenius, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, 313.