Galatians 4:21–31

²¹Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand what the law says? ²²For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.^{b 23}His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born through the promise.

²⁴These things serve as illustrations, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery: This is Hagar. ²⁵Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present-day Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷For it is written:

“Rejoice, O barren woman,

who bears no children;

break forth and cry aloud,

you who have never travailed;

because more are the children of the desolate woman

than of her who has a husband.”^c

²⁸Now you,^d brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. ²⁹At that time, however, the son born by the flesh persecuted the son born by the Spirit. It is the same now.

³⁰But what does the Scripture say? “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”^{e 31}Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.