Galatians 4:21–5:1

Hagar and Sarah Represent Two Covenants

²¹Tell me, you who are wanting to be under the law, do you not understand^c the law? ²²For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the female slave and one by the free woman. ²³But the one by the female slave was born according to human descent, and the one by the free woman through the promise, ²⁴which things are spoken allegorically, for these women are two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery, who is Hagar. ²⁵Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is a slave with her children. ²⁶But the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother. ²⁷For it is written,

“Rejoice, O barren woman, who does not give birth to children;

burst out and shout, you who do not have birth pains,

because many are the children of the desolate woman,

even more than those of the one who has a husband.”^d

²⁸But you, brothers, are children of the promise, just as Isaac. ²⁹But just as at that time the child born according to human descent persecuted the child born according to the Spirit, so also now. ³⁰But what does the scripture say? “Drive out the female slave and her son, for the son of the female slave will never inherit with the son”^e of the free woman. ³¹Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the female slave but of the free woman.

Live in Freedom and Love One Another

5For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.