But God spoke as follows: ‘Your ¹  descendants will be foreigners ²  in a foreign country, whose citizens will enslave them and mistreat them for four hundred years. ³ 

But I will punish ¹  the nation they serve as slaves,’ said God, ‘and after these things they will come out of there ²  and worship ³  me in this place.’ ⁴ 

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, ¹  but you received the Spirit of adoption, ²  by whom ³  we cry, “Abba, Father.”

But if the unbeliever wants a divorce, let it take place. In these circumstances the brother or sister is not bound. ¹  God has called you in peace.

So also we, when we were minors, ¹  were enslaved under the basic forces ²  of the world.

Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

“But now briefly ¹  we have received mercy from the Lord our God, in that he has left us a remnant and has given us a secure position ²  in his holy place. Thus our God has enlightened our eyes ³  and has given us a little relief in our time of servitude.

Although we are slaves, our God has not abandoned us in our servitude. He has extended kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, in that he has revived us ¹  to restore the temple of our God and to raise ²  up its ruins and to give us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem. ³ 

¹ In the future, ²  when your son asks you ³  ‘What is this?’ ⁴  you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand ⁵  the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the land of slavery. ⁶ 

All the people and their leaders had agreed to this. They had agreed to free their male and female slaves and not keep them enslaved any longer. They originally complied with the covenant and freed them. ¹ 

For the Lord our God took us and our fathers out of slavery ¹  in the land of Egypt ²  and performed these awesome miracles ³  before our very eyes. He continually protected us as we traveled and when we passed through nations. ⁴ 

They refused to obey and did not recall your miracles that you had performed among them. Instead, they rebelled and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. ¹  But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love. ²  You did not abandon them,

They made their lives bitter ¹  by ²  hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service ³  in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous. ⁴ 

Then ¹  shouldn’t ²  this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan ³  bound for eighteen long ⁴  years, be released from this imprisonment ⁵  on the Sabbath day?”

These things may be treated as an allegory, ¹  for these women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar.

For freedom ¹  Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be subject again to the yoke ²  of slavery.

Although these false teachers promise ¹  such people ²  freedom, they themselves are enslaved to ³  immorality. ⁴  For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved. ⁵ 

Every day one ox, six select sheep, and some birds were prepared for me, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. Despite all this I did not require the food allotted to the governor, for the work was demanding on this people.

Yet it was I who led ¹  Ephraim, I took them by the arm; but they did not acknowledge that I had healed them. ² 

They will return to Egypt! ¹  Assyria will rule over them ²  because they refuse to repent! ³