Galatians 4:20

Desire] RV 'could wish,' i.e. if such a thing were possible. Change my voice] i.e. change my tone, speak more mildly.

21-31. This passage is an example of the rabbinical method of interpretation, which found a hidden sense, embodied and intended, in many parts of Scripture. Here a historical narrative is taken as revealing the truth that those who adhere to the Law are in bondage, and those living by faith in Christ, free.

Paraphrase. '(21) You who are so zealous for the Law will surely take a lesson from the Law itself. (22) You know the story of Abraham's two children, Ishmael and Isaac, (23) the former the child of the bondwoman, Hagar, the latter of Sarah, born in accordance with a divine promise. (24) These two women represent, in the allegorical application, two covenants, the old and the new. Hagar represents the Law, whose symbol is Mt. Sinai, since her descendants, like the adherents of this old covenant, are born into a state of bondage. (25) Indeed, Hagar is a name of Mt. Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem, the sacred seat of the Law system, which, again, is a symbol of bondage. (26) But the spiritual Jerusalem, answering to Sarah, is, like her, the mother of freemen. (27, 28) For our spiritual mother has fulfilled the promise of Scripture to the childless, by making us like Isaac, the heirs of God's gracious promise. (29) But just as then, so now, the unspiritual persecutes the spiritual. (30) And as then the Ishmaelites were rejected from the heirship of the promises, so now God will reject the slaves of the Law. (31) It is the Christian believers who are God's true freemen and heirs of His promises.'