| 1 | Now I say , [That] the heir , as long as he is a child , differeth nothing from a servant , though he be lord of all ; |
| 2 | But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father . |
| 3 | Even so we , when we were children , were in bondage under the elements of the world : |
| 4 | But when the fulness of the time was come , God sent forth his Son , made of a woman , made under the law , |
| 5 | To redeem them that were under the law , that we might receive the adoption of sons . |
| 6 | And because ye are sons , God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts , crying , Abba , Father . |
| 7 | Wherefore thou art no more a servant , but a son ; and if a son , then an heir of God through Christ . |
| 8 | Howbeit then , when ye knew not God , ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods . |
| 9 | But now , after that ye have known God , or rather are known of God , how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements , whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage ? |
| 10 | Ye observe days , and months , and times , and years . |
| 11 | I am afraid of you , lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain . |
| 12 | Brethren , I beseech you , be as I [am]; for I [am] as ye [are]: ye have not injured me at all . |
| 13 | Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first . |
| 14 | And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not , nor rejected ; but received me as an angel of God , [even] as Christ Jesus . |
| 15 | Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record , that , if [it had been] possible , ye would have plucked out your own eyes , and have given them to me . |
| 16 | Am I therefore become your enemy , because I tell you the truth ? |
| 17 | They zealously affect you , [but] not well ; yea , they would exclude you , that ye might affect them . |
| 18 | But [it is] good to be zealously affected always in [a] good [thing], and not only when I am present with you . |
| 19 | My little children , of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you , |
| 20 | I desire to be present with you now , and to change my voice ; for I stand in doubt of you . |
| 21 | Tell me , ye that desire to be under the law , do ye not hear the law ? |
| 22 | For it is written , that Abraham had two sons , the one by a bondmaid , the other by a freewoman . |
| 23 | But he [who was] of the bondwoman was born after the flesh ; but he of the freewoman [was] by promise . |
| 24 | Which things are an allegory : for these are the two covenants ; the one from the mount Sinai , which gendereth to bondage , which is Agar . |
| 25 | For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia , and answereth to Jerusalem which now is , and is in bondage with her children . |
| 26 | But Jerusalem which is above is free , which is the mother of us all . |
| 27 | For it is written , Rejoice , [thou] barren that bearest not ; break forth and cry , thou that travailest not : for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband . |
| 28 | Now we , brethren , as Isaac was , are the children of promise . |
| 29 | But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him [that was born] after the Spirit , even so [it is] now . |
| 30 | Nevertheless what saith the scripture ? Cast out the bondwoman and her son : for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman . |
| 31 | So then , brethren , we are not children of the bondwoman , but of the free . |
