¹Now I say that as long as the heir is a child, he is in no way different to a slave, although he may be lord of all, ²but he is under guardians and custodians until the day appointed beforehand by the father. ³So we too, when we were children, were enslaved under the rudiments of the world. ⁴But when the fulness of time had come, God sent out his son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive the adoption, ⁶and in that you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, father”, ⁷so that you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God's through Christ. ⁸But at that time, when you did not know God, you served gods who by nature do not exist. ⁹But now that you do know God, or rather are known by God, how can you turn again to the powerless and weak rudiments which you wish to serve all over again? ¹⁰You wrongly observe days and months and seasons and years. ¹¹I fear for you, that I may have toiled for you in vain. ¹²Be like me, for I was also as you are, brothers, I beseech you. You haven't wronged me in any way. ¹³And you know that I preached the gospel to you the first time on account of a physical ailment. ¹⁴And you did not disdain my physical trial, nor did you eject me, but you received me like an angel of God, as Christ Jesus even. ¹⁵What then was your blessing? For I bear witness that if it had been possible you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. ¹⁶Have I as a result become your enemy by telling you the truth? ¹⁷There are those who are zealous for you in a way which is not good. Rather, they wish to isolate you so that you should be zealous for them. ¹⁸But it is good to be impelled by zeal for a good thing at all times, and not only while I am present with you, ¹⁹my little children, you with whom I am again in labour, until Christ takes shape in you. ²⁰And I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my tone, because I am at a loss with you. ²¹Tell me, you who wish to be under the law, do you not hear what the law says? ²²For it stands written that Abraham had two sons, one from the maidservant and one from the free woman. ²³But while he who was from the maidservant was born according to the flesh, he who was from the free woman, was born through the promise. ²⁴Now these things are allegorical. For these two women represent two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, giving birth into bondage, and she is Hagar. ²⁵For Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem of the present, and she is in bondage with her children. ²⁶But Jerusalem of above is free, and she is the mother of us all. ²⁷For it stands written: ²⁸And we, brothers, are children of the promise, consistently with Isaac. ²⁹But as at that time the one born according to the flesh persecuted the one according to the spirit, so it is now too. ³⁰But what does the scripture say? “Cast out the maidservant and her son. For the son of the maidservant will certainly not have any inheritance with the son of the free woman.” ³¹So then, brothers, we are not children of a maidservant, but of the free woman.

Reference(s) in Chapter 4: v.27 ↔ Isaiah 54:1 ● v.30 ↔ Genesis 21:10.