14. and though my physical condition was a trial to you, you did not hate or reject me. No, you welcomed me as a messenger of God—or even as Messiah Yeshua.
15. So where is your sense of joy? For I testify that you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me, if possible.
16. So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?!
17. Others zealously court you—not in a good way, but they wish to shut you out so that you will court them.
18. To be courted is good, but let it always be in a good way—and not just when I am there with you.
19. My dear children! Again I suffer labor pains until Messiah is formed in you.
20. I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, for I don’t know what to make of you.
21. Tell me, you who want to be under Torah, don’t you understand the Torah?
22. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman.
23. But one—the son by the slave woman—was born naturally; while the other—the son by the free woman—was through the promise.
24. Now these things are being treated allegorically, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, giving birth to slavery—this is Hagar.
25. But this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery along with her children.
26. But the Jerusalem above is free—she is our mother.
27. For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren woman who bears no children. Break forth and shout, you who suffer no labor pains. For more are the children of the desolate than of the one who has a husband.”
28. Now you, brothers and sisters—like Isaac, you are children of promise.
29. But just as at that time the one born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the Ruach, so it is now.