Galatians 4:21

Hagar and Sarah

21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?

Galatians 4:21 in Other Translations

21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?

21 Tell me, you who want to live under the law, do you know what the law actually says?

21 Tell me now, you who have become so enamored with the law: Have you paid close attention to that law?

21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

21 Those who want to be controlled by Moses' laws should tell me something. Are you really listening to what Moses' Teachings say?

21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, don't you hear the law?

21 You who want to be under the authority of the law, tell me something. Don't you know what the law says?

Galatians 4:21 Meaning and Commentary

Galatians 4:21

Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law
Not merely to obey it, as holy, just, and good, from a principle of love, and to testify subjection and gratitude to God; so all believers desire to bc under the law: but these men sought for justification and salvation by their obedience to it: they desired to be under it as a covenant of works, which was downright madness and folly to the last degree, since this was the way to come under the curse of it; they wanted to be under the yoke of the law, which is a yoke of bondage, an insupportable one, which the Jewish fathers could not bear; and therefore it was egregious weakness in them to desire to come under it: wherefore the apostle desires them to answer this question,

do ye not hear the law?
meaning either the language and voice of the law of Moses, what it says to transgressors, and so to them; what it accused them of, and charged them with; how it declared them guilty before God, pronounced them accursed, and, ministered sententially condemnation and death unto them; and could they desire to be under such a law? or rather the books of the Old Testament, particularly the five books of Moses, and what is said therein; referring them, as Christ did the Jews, to the Scriptures, to the writings of Moses, and to read, hear, and observe what is in them, since they professed so great a regard to the law; from whence they might learn, that they ought not to be under the bondage and servitude of it. The Vulgate Latin version renders it, "have ye not read the law?" and so one of Stephens's copies; that is, the books of the law; if you have, as you should, you might observe what follows.

Galatians 4:21 In-Context

19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!

21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?

22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.

23 His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.

Cross References

• 1. S Romans 2:12