Genesis 25 · a question people ask
"Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." What does Paul mean by it?
Paul quotes this chapter and Malachi together: "being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, it was said to her, 'The elder will serve the younger.' Even as it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated'" (Romans 9:11-13). The last words are from Malachi 1:2-3. Protestants read it in two main ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
God chose Jacob himself, before birth
Those who hold this view read Romans 9 as speaking of God's choice of persons: the choice was made "being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad… not of works, but of him who calls" (Romans 9:11), "it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy" (Romans 9:16), and Paul goes on to speak of "vessels of mercy… us, whom he also called" (Romans 9:23-24).
Romans 9:11-16 · Romans 9:23-24
God chose Jacob's line for a role
Those who hold this view note that the LORD's words speak of peoples: "Two nations are in your womb. Two peoples will be separated from your body" (25:23), and that Malachi speaks of Edom's land and people (Malachi 1:3-4). They read "hated" as "loved less", as Genesis says Jacob "loved also Rachel more than Leah" and then that "Leah was hated" (29:30-31).
Genesis 25:23 · Malachi 1:3-4 · Genesis 29:30-31
The verses
“The LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb. Two peoples will be separated from your body. The one people will be stronger than the other people. The elder will serve the younger.””
“and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory— us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?”
““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; but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.” Whereas Edom says, “We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places,” the LORD of Armies says, “They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them ‘The Wicked Land,’ even the people against whom the LORD shows wrath forever.””
“He went in also to Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him seven more years. The LORD saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.”