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| [1]And I say, so long time as the heir is a babe, he differeth nothing from a servant -- being lord of all, |
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| [2]but is under tutors and stewards till the time appointed of the father, |
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| [3]so also we, when we were babes, under the elements of the world were in servitude, |
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| [4]and when the fulness of time did come, God sent forth His Son, come of a woman, come under law, |
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| [5]that those under law he may redeem, that the adoption of sons we may receive; |
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| [6]and because ye are sons, God did send forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, `Abba, Father!' |
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| [7]so that thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, also an heir of God through Christ. |
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| [8]But then, indeed, not having known God, ye were in servitude to those not by nature gods, |
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| [9]and now, having known God -- and rather being known by God -- how turn ye again unto the weak and poor elements to which anew ye desire to be in servitude? |
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| [10]days ye observe, and months, and times, and years! |
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| [11]I am afraid of you, lest in vain I did labour toward you. |
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| [12]Become as I [am] -- because I also [am] as ye brethren, I beseech you; to me ye did no hurt, |
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| [13]and ye have known that through infirmity of the flesh I did proclaim good news to you at the first, |
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| [14]and my trial that [is] in my flesh ye did not despise nor reject, but as a messenger of God ye did receive me -- as Christ Jesus; |
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| [15]what then was your happiness? for I testify to you, that if possible, your eyes having plucked out, ye would have given to me; |
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| [16]so that your enemy have I become, being true to you? |
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| [17]they are zealous for you -- [yet] not well, but they wish to shut us out, that for them ye may be zealous; |
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| [18]and [it is] good to be zealously regarded, in what is good, at all times, and not only in my being present with you; |
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| [19]my little children, of whom again I travail in birth, till Christ may be formed in you, |
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| [20]and I was wishing to be present with you now, and to change my voice, because I am in doubt about you. |
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| [21]Tell me, ye who are willing to be under law, the law do ye not hear? |
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| [22]for it hath been written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the maid-servant, and one by the free-woman, |
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| [23]but he who [is] of the maid-servant, according to flesh hath been, and he who [is] of the free-woman, through the promise; |
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| [24]which things are allegorized, for these are the two covenants: one, indeed, from mount Sinai, to servitude bringing forth, which is Hagar; |
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| [25]for this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and doth correspond to the Jerusalem that now [is], and is in servitude with her children, |
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| [26]and the Jerusalem above is the free-woman, which is mother of us all, |
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| [27]for it hath been written, `Rejoice, O barren, who art not bearing; break forth and cry, thou who art not travailing, because many [are] the children of the desolate -- more than of her having the husband.' |
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| [28]And we, brethren, as Isaac, are children of promise, |
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| [29]but as then he who was born according to the flesh did persecute him according to the spirit, so also now; |
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| [30]but what saith the Writing? `Cast forth the maid-servant and her son, for the son of the maid-servant may not be heir with the son of the free-woman;' |
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| [31]then, brethren, we are not a maid-servant's children, but the free-woman's. |
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