< Galatians 4 >
1 And I say, now as much time as the heir is a child, he differs nothing from a servant, [though] being lord of all,
2 but is under tutors and stewards until the time appointed of the father,
3 so we also, when we were children, were in servitude under the elements of the world,
4 and when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, come of a woman, come under law,
5 that He may redeem those under law, that we may receive the adoption as sons;
6 and because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
7 So that you are no longer a servant, but a son, and if a son, also an heir of God through Christ.
8 But then, indeed, having not known God, you were in servitude to those [that are] not by nature gods,
9 and now, having known God—and rather being known by God—how [do] you turn again to the weak and poor elements to which you desire anew to be in servitude?
10 You observe days, and months, and times, and years!
11 I am afraid for you, lest I labored in vain for you.
12 I implore you, brothers, become as I [am]—because I also [am] as you; you did not hurt me;
13 and you have known that through weakness of the flesh I proclaimed good news to you at the first,
14 and you did not despise nor reject my trial that [is] in my flesh, but you received me as a messenger of God—as Christ Jesus;
15 what then was your blessedness? For I testify to you, that if possible, having plucked out your eyes, you would have given [them] to me;
16 so have I become your enemy, being true to you?
17 They are zealous for you—[yet] not well, but they wish to shut us out, that you may be zealous for them;
18 and [it is] good to be zealously regarded, in what is good, at all times, and not only in my being present with you;
19 my little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ may be formed in you,
20 indeed I was wishing to be present with you now, and to change my voice, because I am in doubt about you.
21 Tell me, you who are willing to be under law, do you not hear the Law?
22 For it has been written that Abraham had two sons, one by the maidservant and one by the free [woman],
23 but he who [is] of the maidservant has been according to flesh, but he who [is] of the free [woman], through the promise,
24 which things are allegorized, for these are the two covenants: one, indeed, from Mount Sinai, bringing forth to servitude, which is Hagar;
25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the Jerusalem that now [is], and is in servitude with her children,
26 and the Jerusalem above is the free [woman], which is mother of us all,
27 for it has been written: “Rejoice, O barren, who is not bearing; break forth and cry, you who are not travailing, because many [are] the children of the desolate—more than of her having the husband.”
28 And we, brothers, as Isaac, are children of promise,
29 but as he then who was born according to the flesh persecuted him [born] according to the Spirit, so also now;
30 but what does the Writing say? “Cast forth the maidservant and her son, for the son of the maidservant may not be heir with the son of the free [woman]”;
31 then, brothers, we are not a maidservant’s children, but the free [woman’s].
