God opens Malachi by declaring, "I have loved you" Malachi 1:2. When Israel questions that love, God points to his choice of Jacob over Esau as evidence Malachi 1:2–3. The passage contrasts Israel’s covenant favor with Edom’s judgment Malachi 1:3–5.
In Malachi 1:2–5 Yahweh opens with a direct claim: “I have loved you.” The people challenge that claim, asking how it has been shown. Yahweh answers by pointing to Israel’s ancestral story: Jacob and Esau were brothers, yet Yahweh set love on Jacob. These verses function as the book’s opening exchange, setting a pattern for the rest of Malachi: Yahweh states something, the people question it, and Yahweh responds with an explanation grounded in observable reality and shared memory.
Malachi opens with a direct divine claim: Yahweh tells Israel, “I have loved you” (explicit claim). The people do not accept the claim at face value and ask for evidence (“How have you loved us?”).
A common mistake is to turn the wording into a slogan. The better reading keeps the phrase tied to the passage, the speaker, and the problem the book is addressing.
Start with Malachi 1:2, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
2I have loved you, says Yahweh. Yet you say, Wherein have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob`s brother, says Yahweh: yet I loved Jacob;