Esau

Elder son of Isaac and Rebekah, and brother to Jacob.

As the elder son, Isaac's inheritance would have passed on to Esau. By a conspiracy of his own indifference to what mattered, the cunning of Jacob, the favouritism of his mother, and the lack of discernment by his father, Esau lost his birth-rights and his father's blessing to Jacob. The two brothers finally went separate ways, with Esau marrying Hittite women and fathering a people who became the Edomites. Esau's story is told in Gen 25-27

Esau is often used as a synonym for Edom or Seir. Using hyperbolic language that can easily be mistaken—"Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated"—Malachi uses God's election of Israel over a nation like the Edomites as an illustration of his love for his people.