Few sentences in the Bible produce more discomfort than this one.
NIV “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” (Romans 9:13, quoting Malachi 1:2–3)
Readers encounter this verse and immediately produce a list of objections.
Did God really hate someone before they were born?
Does this mean God plays favorites?
Was Esau given no chance?
And what does any of this have to do with salvation?
Every one of those questions deserves a straight answer, and every one of them can be answered from Scripture.
Objection 1: Did God Really Hate Esau?
This is the first wall most readers hit.
The statement is blunt: Esau, I hated.
But before concluding that God harbored something like personal animosity toward an individual, the literary and historical context has to be established.
The Meaning of “Hate” in This Context
The Hebrew word used in Malachi 1:3 is sane, which can mean loathe, reject, or hold in extreme disfavor.
Biblical scholars widely observe that “love” and “hate,” when contrasted in the Hebrew idiom, often express preference and non-preference rather than emotion in the modern psychological sense.
Jesus used the same construction when He said a person cannot serve two masters and will love one and hate the other (Matthew 6:24).
He also said that following Him requires hating father and mother (Luke 14:26), a statement no serious reader takes to mean literal hatred.
The contrast of love and hate in these contexts communicates priority and selection, not personal hostility.
Who Is “Esau” in Malachi 1?
The critical contextual fact is that Malachi was written centuries after Esau and Jacob had both died.
The prophet was not speaking about a dead individual; he was speaking about living nations.
ESV “I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” (Malachi 1:2–3)
Laying waste to hill country and leaving it to jackals is not something done to a dead man.
It is something done to a nation.
In Malachi, “Jacob” means Israel, and “Esau” means Edom, the nation descended from Esau that had become persistently hostile to Israel.
The statement “Esau I have hated” reflects God’s rejection of Edom as a covenant nation, based on Edom’s own long record of hostility and pride (see Obadiah 1:3–4).
The Full Answer
God did not hate the unborn Esau in the sense of personal emotional contempt for an individual who had done nothing.
God, looking through history, declared that the line of Jacob would carry His covenant purposes, and that the nation of Edom, through its own choices, had placed itself outside those covenant blessings.
The “hate” here is covenantal rejection, not personal loathing.
Objection 2: Does God Show Favoritism?
This objection cuts deeper than the first.
Even if “hate” means something other than personal animosity, the fact remains: God chose Jacob before the twins were born, and He did not choose Esau.
Is that not simply favoritism?
What Paul Actually Said
When Paul quoted Malachi in Romans 9, he was making a specific theological argument.
NASB “For though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, ‘The older will serve the younger.'” (Romans 9:11–12)
Paul’s point is not that God is capricious.
His point is that God’s sovereign purposes are not contingent on human merit.
If elections were based on foreseen merit, it would ultimately be a form of salvation by works.
The choice before birth rules that interpretation out.
The Distinction Between Favoritism and Sovereignty
Favoritism in the human sense means preferring someone arbitrarily or for selfish reasons.
God’s election operates on a different basis entirely.
NIV “For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.'” (Romans 9:15)
God is not showing favoritism to Jacob because Jacob somehow deserves it or because God likes him for personal reasons.
God is exercising sovereign freedom in carrying forward His redemptive purposes through the person and people He chose.
The question “is that not favoritism?” assumes that God owes identical treatment to all people regardless of His sovereign purposes.
Scripture does not support that assumption.
It does, however, insist that God is not unjust (Romans 9:14).
Both Esau and Edom Were Materially Blessed
One detail often overlooked in this debate is that Esau personally received a significant blessing.
He was reconciled with Jacob (Genesis 33), became the father of a nation (Genesis 36), and his descendants settled a productive territory.
God did not curse Esau or leave him destitute.
He chose not to run His covenant line through Esau, which is not the same as abandoning him.
Objection 3: Why God Chose Jacob Over Esau
Once the first two objections are handled, a genuine question remains.
Why Jacob specifically?
And what does Esau’s story tell us about the basis of God’s choices?
Jacob Was Not the Obviously Better Candidate
If God chose Jacob because Jacob was morally superior, the biblical account would have to be very different from what it actually is.
Jacob was a deceiver.
He exploited his brother’s hunger to buy the birthright (Genesis 25:29–34).
He disguised himself to steal Isaac’s blessing from Esau through direct deception (Genesis 27).
His name literally means “supplanter” or “one who grasps at the heel.”
God chose a man who cheated his brother twice, not because Jacob deserved it, but because God’s redemptive purpose ran through that line.
The choice was about God’s sovereign plan, not Jacob’s character.
NLT “This shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.” (Romans 9:11–12)
Esau’s Own Choices Were Not Irrelevant
This is where the full picture requires nuance.
The text in Romans 9 is clear that the original choice was made before the twins were born and was not based on anything they would do.
But Esau’s subsequent choices were genuinely his own, and they genuinely revealed his heart.
ESV “See to it that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.” (Hebrews 12:16)
Esau sold the birthright, a covenant privilege, for a bowl of stew (Genesis 25:34).
That was not a small transaction.
The birthright carried the promise of God, the covenant leadership of the family, and the continuation of the line through which the Messiah would come.
Esau treated it as disposable.
Hebrews describes his mindset as “unholy,” not tragic or circumstantial.
When he later sought the blessing back with tears (Genesis 27:38; Hebrews 12:17), he was not repenting of his contempt for the covenant.
He was mourning the loss of the material benefits.
The Covenant as the Key
The choice of Jacob over Esau was fundamentally a covenantal decision.
God had made promises to Abraham and Isaac, and He was now designating the line through which those promises would pass.
That line would eventually produce the nation of Israel, the Mosaic covenant, the temple, the prophets, and ultimately Jesus Christ.
God’s freedom to carry those purposes through the line He chose does not make Him arbitrary.
It makes Him sovereign over His own redemptive plan.
Did God Hate Esau the Person?
Having worked through the three major objections, the full answer to the title question can now be stated.
God did not hate Esau the individual with personal emotional contempt before Esau had done anything.
God chose, before birth, to carry His covenant purposes through Jacob rather than Esau.
Esau, as a person, received a blessing, lived a long life, and was reconciled with his brother.
NIV “But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.” (Genesis 33:4)
The “hate” that Malachi declared was God’s covenantal rejection of Edom as a nation, a rejection that came after centuries of Edomite hostility and pride.
It was not a declaration of personal emotional hatred for a man who had been dead for generations.
What This Means for Christians Today
This passage is not simply ancient history.
Paul cited it in Romans 9 precisely because it addresses a live question: why do some receive God’s mercy and others do not?
The answer Scripture gives is not comfortable, but it is clear.
ESV “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” (Romans 9:16)
Salvation is not earned by effort, moral performance, or ethnic identity.
It flows from God’s sovereign mercy, which no one deserves and which God extends according to His own purposes.
The response Romans 9 calls for is not despair or resentment.
It is humility.
You are not Jacob because you are better than Esau.
If you have received God’s mercy, it is because He gave it, not because you earned it.
And the same grace that chose Jacob despite his flaws is the grace available to anyone who comes to Christ.
Questions About Jacob, Esau, and God’s Choices
Why did God choose Jacob over Esau before they were born?
Paul’s answer in Romans 9 is that God’s sovereign purpose in election stands independent of human merit. The choice before birth rules out any basis in foreseen works. God carries His covenant purposes through the people He chooses, not through those who perform best.
Does Romans 9 teach that God eternally damns some people before birth?
Most scholars note that Romans 9 addresses national election and covenant purposes, not the eternal destiny of individuals. Esau was not condemned to hell for being born second. The text concerns God’s freedom to run His covenant line through Jacob, not a decree of personal damnation for Esau.
Did Esau have a chance, or was his fate sealed from the beginning?
Esau made genuine choices. He sold his birthright willingly and for nothing more than a meal. Hebrews 12:16 calls him “unholy” for it. God’s sovereign choice of Jacob did not eliminate Esau’s moral agency. Scripture presents Esau as responsible for his own contempt for spiritual things.
What does it mean that “God hated Esau” in the Bible?
It means God covenantally rejected the nation of Edom, which descended from Esau. In the Hebrew idiom, “love” and “hate” contrast to express preference and non-preference. The statement in Malachi was written centuries after Esau died and addressed a living, hostile nation, not a personal emotional response to an individual.
Does God hate anyone today?
God hates sin, injustice, and wickedness throughout Scripture. Whether God hates persons is debated. What Scripture insists is that God desires all to repent (1 Timothy 2:4), that Christ died for the world (John 3:16), and that His mercy is open to anyone who comes to Him.
Is it wrong to question why God chose Jacob and not Esau?
Paul engaged that question directly in Romans 9:14–21, never dismissing it. Christians may wrestle honestly with difficult texts. What Paul resists is the conclusion that God is unjust. God’s choices are sovereign and purposeful, consistent with His character, even when they exceed our understanding.
A Prayer for Humility Before God’s Sovereignty
Lord, I confess that the first thing I feel when I read “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” is the impulse to defend You.
Or to defend myself.
Or to ask whether I am Jacob or Esau.
But You call me to trust, not to audit Your choices.
Remind me that whatever mercy I have received came from Your hand and not from my merit.
Let Your sovereignty humble me, not harden me.
And let the grace that chose Jacob despite his flaws be the grace I rest in today.
Amen.
Consulted Sources
Schreiner, T. R. (1998). Romans: Baker exegetical commentary on the New Testament. Baker Academic.
Moo, D. J. (1996). The Epistle to the Romans (New International Commentary on the New Testament). Eerdmans.
France, R. T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew. Eerdmans.
GotQuestions.org. (2026). Why did God love Jacob and hate Esau?
Ligonier Ministries. (n.d.). Jacob I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Christianity.com. (n.d.). Why did God love Jacob and hate Esau?
Crosswalk.com. (n.d.). Why did God hate Esau, and what does it mean for us?
Christian Publishing House Blog. (2025). Why did God love Jacob and hate Esau?
(2017). Why did God love Jacob and hate Esau? Redeeming God Blog.
(2023). Is it biblical to say God hated baby Esau? Leya del Ray Blog.
(2025). Why did God hate Esau, and what does that mean for us? SOH Church Blog.
