Though Edom says, “We have been demolished, but we will return and build up the waste places”; thus says Yahweh of hosts, “They may build, but I will pull down; and men will call them a territory of wickedness, and the people toward whom Yahweh is indignant forever.”
Malachi 1:2 “I have loved you,” says Yahweh. But you say, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares Yahweh. “Yet I have loved Jacob;
Malachi 1:3 but I have hated Esau, and I have set his mountains to be a desolation and his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.”
Malachi 1:4 Though Edom says, “We have been demolished, but we will return and build up the waste places”; thus says Yahweh of hosts, “They may build, but I will pull down; and men will call them a territory of wickedness, and the people toward whom Yahweh is indignant forever.”
Malachi 1:5 And your eyes will see this, and you will say, “Yahweh be magnified beyond the territory of Israel!”
Malachi 1:6 “‘A son honors his father, and a slave his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is the fear of Me?’ says Yahweh of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’
The verse centers on "though", "edom", "says", "been", "demolished", "return", "build", and "waste". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "though" and "edom", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 3's "but I have hated Esau and I..." into verse 5's "And your eyes will see this and...", so "though" and "edom" belong inside that flow. In Malachi context, the local focus is covenant faithfulness, priestly corruption, divine justice, and the coming day of the LORD.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "though" and "edom" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.