4 ²¹ TELL ME NOW, you who are so anxious to be under law, will you not listen to what the Law says? 4 ²² It is written there that Abraham had two sons, one by his slave and the other by his free-born wife. 4 ²³ The slave-woman's son was born in the course of nature, the free woman's through God's promise. 4 ²⁴ This is an allegory. The two women stand for two covenants. The one bearing children into slavery is the covenant that comes from Mount Sinai: that is Hagar. 4 ²⁵ Sinai is a mountain in Arabia and it represents the Jerusalem of today, for she and her children are in slavery. 4 ²⁶ But the heavenly Jerusalem is the free woman; she is our mother. 4 ^{27 [ Is.54.1. ]} For Scripture says, 'Rejoice, O barren woman who never bore child; break into a shout of joy, you who never knew a mother's pangs; for the deserted wife shall have more children than she who lives with the husband.'

4 ²⁸ And you, my brothers, like Isaac, are children of God's promise. 4 ²⁹ But just as in those days the natural-born son persecuted the spiritual son, so it is today. 4 ^{30 [ Gn.21.10. ]} But what does Scripture say? 'Drive out the slave-woman and her son, for the son of the slave shall not share the inheritance with the free woman's son.' 4 ³¹ You see, then, my brothers, we are no slave-woman's children; our mother is the free 5 ¹ woman. Christ set us free, to be free men. Or: What Christ has done is to set us free. Stand firm, then, and refuse to be tied to the yoke of slavery again.