Gal 4:21-31
An Allegory on Christian Freedom.* 21Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the freeborn woman.l 23The son of the slave woman was born naturally, the son of the freeborn through a promise.m 24Now this is an allegory. These women represent two covenants. One was from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar.n 25Hagar represents Sinai,* a mountain in Arabia; it corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery along with her children. 26But the Jerusalem above is freeborn, and she is our mother.o 27For it is written:
“Rejoice, you barren one who bore no children;p
break forth and shout, you who were not in labor;
for more numerous are the children of the deserted one
than of her who has a husband.”*
28Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise.q 29But just as then the child of the flesh persecuted the child of the spirit, it is the same now. 30But what does the scripture say?
“Drive out the slave woman and her son!
For the son of the slave woman shall not share the inheritance with the son”r
of the freeborn. 31Therefore, brothers, we are children not of the slave woman but of the freeborn woman.s