19 My dear children, I am in pain for you. Once again I have pain like a woman giving birth. And my pain will continue until Christ makes you like himself.
20 I wish I could be with you now. I wish I could change my tone of voice. As it is, you bewilder me.
21 You who want to be under the authority of the law, tell me something. Don't you know what the law says?
22 It is written that Abraham had two sons. The slave woman gave birth to one of them. The free woman gave birth to the other one.
23 Abraham's son by the slave woman was born in the usual way. But his son by the free woman was born because of God's promise.
24 Those things can be taken as examples. The two women stand for two covenants. One covenant comes from Mount Sinai. It gives birth to children who are going to be slaves. It is Hagar.
25 Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia. She stands for the present city of Jerusalem. That's because she and her children are slaves.