New Century Version NCV
New International Version NIV
21 Some of you still want to be under the law. Tell me, do you know what the law says?
21
Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?
22 The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons. The mother of one son was a slave woman, and the mother of the other son was a free woman.
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For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
23 Abraham's son from the slave woman was born in the normal human way. But the son from the free woman was born because of the promise God made to Abraham.
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His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.
24 This story teaches something else: The two women are like the two agreements between God and his people. One agreement is the law that God made on Mount Sinai, and the people who are under this agreement are like slaves. The mother named Hagar is like that agreement.
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These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.
25 She is like Mount Sinai in Arabia and is a picture of the earthly Jewish city of Jerusalem. This city and its people, the Jews, are slaves to the law.
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Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.
26 But the heavenly Jerusalem, which is above, is like the free woman. She is our mother.
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But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.
27 It is written in the Scriptures: "Be happy, Jerusalem. You are like a woman who never gave birth to children. Start singing and shout for joy. You never felt the pain of giving birth, but you will have more children than the woman who has a husband."
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For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”
28 My brothers and sisters, you are God's children because of his promise, as Isaac was then.
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Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.
29 The son who was born in the normal way treated the other son badly. It is the same today.
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At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.
30 But what does the Scripture say? "Throw out the slave woman and her son. The son of the slave woman should not inherit anything. The son of the free woman should receive it all."
30
But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”
31 So, my brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
31
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.