Galatians 4:25

An Understandable Version (2005 edition)

Now this woman, Hagar, is similar to Mount Sinai, in Arabia, and represents the present [earthly] Jerusalem [i.e., Israel], consisting of children in bondage [to the Law of Moses].

Cross References

Matthew 23:37

“O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [you people] who murdered the prophets and stoned those who were sent to you! How often I have wanted to gather you people together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

Luke 13:34

“O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you people who murdered the prophets and stoned those who were sent to you! How often I have wanted to gather you people together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

Luke 19:44

They will throw you and your children, [who are] within your walls, to the ground and they will not allow one stone to remain on top of another in your city because you did not recognize that [God was] visiting you.” [Note: This “visitation” refers either to the redemption which they had rejected or to the punishment of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70].

Acts 1:11

and said, “You men from Galilee, why are you standing there looking up at the sky? This Jesus who was received up from your presence into the sky will return in the same way you saw Him go there.”

Galatians 1:17

I did not go up to Jerusalem to [discuss it with] those who had become apostles before me either; instead I went away into Arabia. [Note: This is probably when Paul received supernatural power from the Holy Spirit]. Then afterward, I returned to Damascus. [Note: This was in Syria where Paul was converted].

Galatians 4:24

This set of circumstances contains an illustration; for these two women [Hagar and Sarah] represent the two Agreements [between God and mankind]. The one [Agreement], given at Mount Sinai, represents Hagar, whose children became [the Israelites], enslaved under bondage [to the requirements of the Law of Moses].

Galatians 4:26

But the heavenly Jerusalem [Heb. 12:22] consists of free people, and is the mother of us [Christians].

Hebrews 12:18

[Unlike the Israelites at Mount Sinai] you [Christians] have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that burned with fire [See Ex. 19:12, 16-19; 20:18-21; Deut. 4:11]; to [a place of] darkness, gloom and wind;