1 N ow I say, As long as the heir is a child, he differs nothing from a bondman, though he be lord of all;

2 b ut he is under guardians and stewards until the period fixed by the father.

3 S o we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the principles of the world;

4 b ut when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law,

5 t hat he might redeem those under law, that we might receive sonship.

6 B ut because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

7 S o thou art no longer bondman, but son; but if son, heir also through God.

8 B ut then indeed, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods;

9 b ut now, knowing God, but rather being known by God, how do ye turn again to the weak and beggarly principles to which ye desire to be again anew in bondage?

10 Y e observe days and months and times and years.

11 I am afraid of you, lest indeed I have laboured in vain as to you.

12 B e as I, for I also as ye, brethren, I beseech you: ye have not at all wronged me.

13 B ut ye know that in weakness of the flesh I announced the glad tidings to you at the first;

14 a nd my temptation, which in my flesh, ye did not slight nor reject with contempt; but ye received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

15 W hat then your blessedness? for I bear you witness that, if possible, plucking out your own eyes ye would have given to me.

16 S o I have become your enemy in speaking the truth to you?

17 T hey are not rightly zealous after you, but desire to shut you out, that ye may be zealous after them.

18 B ut right to be zealous at all times in what is right, and not only when I am present with you—

19 m y children, of whom I again travail in birth until Christ shall have been formed in you:

20 a nd I should wish to be present with you now, and change my voice, for I am perplexed as to you.

21 T ell me, ye who are desirous of being under law, do ye not listen to the law?

22 F or it is written that Abraham had two sons; one of the maid servant, and one of the free woman.

23 B ut he of the maid servant was born according to flesh, and he of the free woman through the promise.

24 W hich things have an allegorical sense; for these are two covenants: one from mount Sinai, gendering to bondage, which is Hagar.

25 F or Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now, for she is in bondage with her children;

26 b ut the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother.

27 F or it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break out and cry, thou that travailest not; because the children of the desolate are more numerous than of her that has a husband.

28 B ut ye, brethren, after the pattern of Isaac, are children of promise.

29 B ut as then he that was born according to flesh persecuted him according to Spirit, so also now.

30 B ut what says the scripture? Cast out the maid servant and her son; for the son of the maid servant shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.

31 S o then, brethren, we are not maid servant's children, but of the free woman.