Malachia 1:2

La Riveduta Bibbia

Io v’ho amati, dice l’Eterno; e voi dite: "In che ci hai tu amati?" Esaù non era egli fratello di Giacobbe? Dice l’Eterno; e nondimeno io ho amato Giacobbe,

Parallel Translations

La Nuova Diodati
"Io vho amati", dice lEterno. Ma voi dite: "In che cosa ci hai amati?". "Esa non era forse fratello di Giacobbe?", dice lEterno. "Tuttavia io ho amato Giacobbe

Giovanni Diodati Bibbia
IO vi ho amati, ha detto il Signore. E voi avete detto: In che ci hai amati? Non era Esa� fratello di Giacobbe? dice il Signore. Or io ho amato Giacobbe;

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I have: The prophet shows in Malachi 1:2-5, 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 forever. Deuteronomy 7:6-8, Deuteronomy 10:15, Deuteronomy 32:8-14, Isaiah 41:8, Isaiah 41:9, Isaiah 43:4, Jeremiah 31:3, Romans 11:28, Romans 11:29

Wherein: Malachi 1:6, Malachi 1:7, Malachi 2:17, Malachi 3:7, Malachi 3:8, Malachi 3:13, Malachi 3:14, Jeremiah 2:5, Jeremiah 2:31, Luke 10:29

yet I: Genesis 25:23, Genesis 27:27-30, Genesis 27:33, Genesis 28:3, Genesis 28:4, Genesis 28:13, Genesis 28:14, Genesis 32:28-30, Genesis 48:4, Romans 9:10-13

Reciprocal: Genesis 27:29 - be lord Numbers 20:14 - thy brother Deuteronomy 4:37 - because Deuteronomy 23:5 - because the Deuteronomy 23:7 - he is thy Deuteronomy 33:3 - he loved 1 Samuel 12:22 - it hath 1 Kings 11:15 - after he had 2 Kings 3:8 - the wilderness of Edom 1 Chronicles 1:34 - The sons of Isaac Psalms 44:3 - because Psalms 47:4 - whom Isaiah 21:11 - me out Jeremiah 25:21 - Edom Lamentations 4:21 - the cup Ezekiel 16:8 - thy time Ezekiel 36:5 - against all Hosea 11:1 - Israel Amos 1:11 - because Matthew 1:2 - Isaac begat Mark 3:8 - Idumaea Luke 14:26 - hate Romans 9:13 - Jacob

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I have loved you, saith the Lord,.... Which appeared of old, by choosing them, above all people upon the face of the earth, to be his special and peculiar people; by bestowing peculiar favours and blessings upon them, both temporal and spiritual; by continuing them a people, through a variety of changes and revolutions; and by lately bringing them out of the Babylonish captivity, restoring their land unto them, and the pure worship of God among them:

Yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? the Targum renders it, "and if ye should say"; and so Kimchi and Ben Melech; which intimates, that though they might not have expressed themselves in so many words, yet they seemed disposed to say so; they thought it, if they said it not; and therefore, to prevent such an objection, as well as to show their ingratitude, it is put in this form; and an instance of his love is demanded, which is very surprising, when they had so many; and shows great stupidity and unthankfulness. Abarbinel renders the words, "wherefore hast thou loved us?" that is, is there not a reason to be given for loving us? which he supposes was the love of Abraham to God; and therefore his love to them was not free, but by way of reward to Abraham's love; and consequently they were not so much obliged to him for it: to which is replied,

[was] not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord; Jacob and Esau were brethren; they had one and the same father and mother, Isaac and Rebekah, and equally descended from Abraham; so that if one was loved for the sake of Abraham, as suggested, according to Abarbinel's sense, the other had an equal claim to it; they lay in the same womb together; they were twins; and if any could be thought to have the advantage by birth, Esau had it, being born first: but before they were born, and before they had done good or evil, what is afterwards said of them was in the heart of God towards them; which shows that the love of God to his people is free, sovereign, and distinguishing, Genesis 25:23:

yet I loved Jacob; personally considered; not only by giving him the temporal birthright and blessing, and the advantages arising from thence; but by choosing him to everlasting life, bestowing his grace upon him, revealing Christ unto him, and making him a partaker of eternal happiness; and also his posterity, as appears by the above instances mentioned; and likewise mystically considered, for all the elect, redeemed, and called, go by the name of Jacob and Israel in Scripture frequently; for what is here said of Jacob is true of all the individuals of God's people; for which purpose the apostle refers to this passage in Romans 9:13, to prove the sovereignty and distinction of the love of God in their election and salvation: and this is indeed a clear proof that the love of God to his people is entirely free from all motives and conditions in them, being before they had done either good or evil; and therefore did not arise from any goodness in them, nor from their love to him nor from any good works done by them: the choice of persons to everlasting life, the fruit of this love, is denied to be of works, and is ascribed to grace; it passed before any were wrought; and what are done by the best of men are the effects of it; and the persons chosen or passed by were in an equal state when both were done; which appears by this instance: and by which also it is manifest that the love of God to men is distinguishing; it is not alike to all men; there is a peculiar favour he bears to own people; which is evident by the choice of some, and not others; by the redemption of them out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation; by the effectual calling of them out of the world; by the application of the blessings of grace unto them; and by bestowing eternal life on them: and it may be further observed, that the objects of God's love have not always the knowledge of it; indeed they have no knowledge of it before conversion, which is the open time of love; and after conversion they have not always distinct and appropriating views of it; only when God is pleased to come and manifest it unto them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I have loved you, saith the Lord - What a volume of God’s relations to us in two simple words, “I-have-loved you” . So would not God speak, unless He still loved. “I have loved and do love you,” is the force of the words. When? And since when? In all eternity God loved; in all our past, God loved. Tokens of His love, past or present, in good or seeming ill, are but an effluence of that everlasting love. He, the Unchangeable, ever loved, as the apostle of love says 1 John 4:19, “we love Him, because He first loved us.” The deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, the making them His Romans 9:4, “special people, the adoption, the covenant, the giving of the Law, the service of God and His promises,” all the several mercies involved in these, the feeding with manna, the deliverance from their enemies whenever they returned to Him, their recent restoration, the gift of the prophets, were so many single pulses of God’s everlasting love, uniform in itself, manifold in its manifestations. But it is more than a declaration of His everlasting love. “I have loved you;” God would say; with “a special love, a more than ordinary love, with greater tokens of love, than to others.” So God brings to the penitent soul the thought of its ingratitude: I have loved “you:” I, you. And ye have said, “Wherein hast Thou loved us?” It is a characteristic of Malachi to exhibit in all its nakedness man’s ingratitude. This is the one voice of all people’s complaints, ignoring all God’s past and present mercies, in view of the one thing which He withholds, though they dare not put it into words: “Wherein hast Thou loved us Psalms 78:11? Within a while they forgot His works, and the wonders that He had showed them Psalms 106:13 : they made haste, they forgot His works.”

“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother! saith the Lord: and I loved Jacob, and Esau have I hated.” “While they were yet in their mother’s womb, before any good or evil deserts of either, God said to their mother Genesis 25:23, The older shall serve the younger. The hatred was not a proper and formed hatred (for God could not hate Esau before he sinned) but only a lesser love,” which, in comparison to the great love for Jacob, seemed as if it were not love. “So he says Genesis 29:31. The Lord saw that Leah was hated; where Jacob’s neglect of Leah, and lesser love than for Rachel, is called ‘hatred;’ yet Jacob did not literally hate Leah, whom he loved and cared for as his wife.” This greater love was shown in preferring the Jews to the Edomites, giving to the Jews His law, Church, temple, prophets, and subjecting Edom to them; and especially in the recent deliverance “He does not speak directly of predestination, but of pre-election, to temporal goods.” God gave both nations alike over to the Chaldees for the punishment of their sins; but the Jews He brought back, Edom He left unrestored.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Malachi 1:2. 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.