Galatians 4
1NOW I say, as long as the heir is a child, he differs in nothing from a servant though he is lord of all;
2but is under guardians and stewards, until the time appointed by the father.
3So also we, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elements[4:3] of the world.
4But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under law,
5that he might redeem those under law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
6And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
7So that thou art no longer a servant, but a son; and if a son, also an heir through God.
8But at that time indeed, when ye knew not God, ye served those which are not in their nature gods.
9But now, after having known God, or rather having been known by God, how is it that ye turn back again to the weak and poor elements[4:9], to which ye desire to be in bondage again anew?
10Do ye carefully observe days, and months, and seasons, and years?
11I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain.
12Become as I am, for I also became as ye are, brethren, I beseech you. Ye injured me in nothing.
13Nay, ye know that by reason of weakness of the flesh I preached the glad tidings to you the former time;
14and my trial[4:14], which was in my flesh, ye despised not nor spurned, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.
15Where is[4:15] then the happiness of which ye spoke? For I bear you witness, that if possible, ye would have plucked out your eyes, and given them to me.
16So then, have I become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
17They zealously seek you, not well; but they wish to exclude you, that ye may zealously seek them.
18But it is good to be zealously sought in a good cause always, and not only when I am present with you.
19My little children, of whom I travail again in birth, until Christ be formed in you!
20And I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I am perplexed on account of you.
21Tell me, ye who desire to be under law, do ye not hear the law?
22For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman, and one by the freewoman.
23But the one by the bondwoman was born after the flesh, and the one by the freewoman through the promise.
24Which things are an allegory[4:24]. For these women are two covenants, one from mount Sinai, bearing children into bondage,
25which is Hagar (for the word Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia), and answers to the Jerusalem that now is, for she is in bondage with her children.
26But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all[4:26].
27For it is written: Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; Break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; Because many are the children of the desolate, rather than of her who has the husband.
28But ye, brethren, after the manner of Isaac, are children of promise.
29But as then, the one born after the flesh persecuted the one born after the spirit, so also is it now.
30But what says the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman.
31So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the freewoman.