Gal 4:9-11, 21-31 | ESV | STEP | But now that you have come to know God , or rather to be known by God , how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world , whose slaves you want to be once more ?

Galatians 4:9-11

9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather ^ato be known by God, ^bhow can you turn back again to ^cthe weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 ^dYou observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid ^eI may have labored over you in vain.

Galatians 4:21-31

Example of Hagar and Sarah

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, ^fone by a slave woman and ^gone by a free woman. 23 But ^hthe son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while ⁱthe son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two ^jcovenants. ^kOne is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; ^{▼▼Some manuscripts For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia} she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But ^mthe Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,

ⁿ“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than those of the one who has a husband.”
28 Now you, ^{▼▼Some manuscripts we} brothers, ^plike Isaac, ^qare children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh ^rpersecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, ^sso also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? ^t“Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but ^uof the free woman.