Galatians 4:27

For it is written The quotation is taken exactly from the Septuagint version of Isaiah 54:1.

By the -barren" we must understand Sarah, who was a type of the Gospel dispensation. Small and persecuted in its early days, the Church of Christ has now -many more children" than the Jewish Church could ever boast of. -She which hath an husband" (rather, -the husband") is Hagar, who took the place of Sarah in the conjugal society of the husband. She represents the Jewish people, nationally and ecclesiastically, and for a time enjoyed the peculiar favour of her God a relation to Him which in the O.T. is frequently described as that between husband and wife. St Paul's use of this passage of Isaiah in no wise interferes with its primary reference to the promised deliverance of Israel from exile and oppression. Those who overlook or deny a primary and literal fulfilment of the prophecies of the Old Testament unconsciously weaken the foundation on which the hope (or the belief) of a spiritual and ultimate accomplishment of them rests.