Romans 9:13 states, “Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’” Without background this is a disturbing verse! There are two pieces of contextual information that help us understand what Paul is saying.
First, “loved” vs. “hated” was a common ancient Jewish idiom that literally meant to “prefer” one thing or person over another. For example, Jesus uses this same idiom when he says: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Now, no one thinks that Jesus was teaching people to literally hate their parents! Rather, he meant that in comparison to their love and devotion to Jesus, their love and devotion to parents must come second. That is, followers of Jesus must prefer Jesus and his Kingdom to all other things in this world. In the same way, God is not saying that he literally “hates” Esau but that he chose to work primarily through Jacob.
Second, it is important to realize that when Paul is referring to Esau here, he is not primarily thinking of the man named Esau. Rather, he is referring to the nation which came forth from Esau, namely Edom. How do we know this? Well, one very helpful principle of biblical interpretation is this: If a New Testament author (like Paul in this case) is quoting an Old Testament passage, we must go back to the Old Testament passage itself and read the full context, because ancient Jews knew their Old Testament so well that they would naturally have known the context of a quoted passage.
When Paul says “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,” he is quoting from Malachi 1:2-5:
The word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, ‘How have you loved us?’ Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob but I have hated Esau; I have made his hill country a desolation and his heritage a desert for jackals.” If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the LORD of hosts says: “They may build, but I will tear down, until they are called the wicked country, the people with whom the LORD is angry forever. Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, ‘Great is the LORD beyond the borders of Israel!’”
In the ancient world, it was common to refer to an entire nation by using the name of the original ancestor. What God is saying through Malachi here is that God chose the nation Israel (i.e., “Jacob”) instead of Edom (i.e., “Esau) as his chosen people through whom to reach the world and bring forth the Messiah. This certainly doesn’t mean that the people of Edom necessarily went to hell. It just means that God chose to bring salvation to the whole world through the Jews, not through the Edomites.
When we put all of this together, we can see that God is using a well-known ancient Jewish idiom to explain why he chose to work through Israel rather than Edom.
