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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
Theophylact of Ohrid
As the prophet also says: "I loved Jacob, but Esau I hated" (Mal. 1:2). But why do I speak of these persons? All the Israelites worshipped the calf, yet some were punished and others were not. And Pharaoh was indeed cruel, but many others were also cruel: why then did punishment befall him alone? Do you see that this is incomprehensible to men but comprehensible to God alone? So also the election of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews appears groundless to us, yet in the eyes of God both are perfectly just. …
Irenaeus
The history of Isaac, too, is not without a symbolical character. For in the Epistle to the Romans, the apostle declares: "Moreover, when Rebecca had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac," she received answer from the Word, "that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people are in thy body; and the one people shall overcome the other, and the elder shall serve the younger." From which it is evident, that …
Western Saints
Thomas Aquinas
Then he proves his point when he says as it is written, by the authority of the prophet Malachi speaking in the person of God who says: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. A Gloss on this says that the statement, the elder shall serve the younger, was spoken from foreknowledge, but that the present statement results from judgment, i.e., that God loved Jacob on account of his good works, just as he loves all the saints: I love those who love me (Prov 8:17), but he hated Esau on account of his sins: the Highest hates sinners (Eccl 12:7). …
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