An Illustration: Hagar and Sarah

²¹ Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you really listening to the law? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman, and one by the free woman. ²³ However, the son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through a promise. ²⁴ These things can be used as an illustration; namely, the women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children into slavery. This is Hagar. ²⁵ You see,^[a] this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and she corresponds to present-day Jerusalem, because Jerusalem is in slavery along with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem that is above is free. She is our mother. ²⁷ For it is written:

²⁸ Now you,^[c] brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise. ²⁹ But just as back then the one who was born according to the flesh persecuted the one who was born according to the Spirit, so this is also the case now. ³⁰ But what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son, because the son of the slave woman will certainly not receive the inheritance with the son of the free woman.”^{[d] 31} For this same reason, brothers, we are not children of a slave woman, but of the free woman.