Galatians 4:21–5:1

The Allegory of Hagar and Sarah

²¹Tell me, you who desire to be subject to the law, will you not listen to the law? ²²For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by an enslaved woman and the other by a free woman.^{* 23}One, the child of the enslaved woman, was born according to the flesh; the other, the child of the free woman, was born through the promise.^{* 24}Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. ²⁵Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia^a and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶But the other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem above; she is free, and she is our mother.^{* 27}For it is written,

“Rejoice, you childless one, you who bear no children,

burst into song and shout, you who endure no birth pangs,

for the children of the desolate woman are more numerous

than the children of the one who is married.”^*

²⁸Now you,^b my brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, like Isaac. ²⁹But just as at that time the child who was born according to the flesh persecuted the child who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.^{* 30}But what does the scripture say? “Drive out the enslaved woman and her child, for the child of the enslaved woman will not share the inheritance with the child of the free woman.”^{* 31}So then, brothers and sisters, we are children, not of an enslaved woman but of the free woman.

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