Galatians 4:21

Galatians 4:21 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
• New International Version (NIV)Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?
• English Standard Version (ESV)Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?
• New King James Version (NKJV)Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?

Context of Galatians 4:21

19My children, I feel like a mother who is giving birth to you again. I will continue to feel that kind of pain until you become more completely like Christ. 20I want very much to be there with you now. Then I would know better how to speak to you. As it is, I do not know what to think about you. I say this to you people who want God's Law to have authority over you. Think carefully about what that Law really says. 22The Bible says that Abraham had two sons. The mother of one of them was a slave. The mother of the other son was a free woman. 23Hagar was a slave. Her son was born as a result of what Abraham himself decided. But Abraham's wife, Sarah, gave birth to the other son. That son was born as a result of what God had promised to Abraham.

Galatians 4:21 word by word

Λέγετέ μοι, οἱ ὑπὸ νόμον θέλοντες εἶναι, τὸν νόμον οὐκ ἀκούετε;Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Tellλέγωlegō · to sayG3004
• meἐγώegō · I/weG1473
• ye thatὁho hē to · the/this/whoG3588
• desireθέλωthelō ethelō · to will/desireG2309
• to beεἰμίeimi · to beG1510
• underὑπόhupo · by/under: underG5259
• the lawνόμοςnomos · lawG3551
• do yeἀκούωakouō · to hearG191
• notοὐou · noG3756

Cross-references for Galatians 4:21

• Galatians 4:9But now you do know God. Or really, I should say that God knows you. So you must not turn back to serve those weak spirits that rule this world. Why do you want to obey their useless rules and become their slaves again?
• Galatians 3:10But some people try to obey all the rules of God's Law. They think that they will become right with God if they do this very well. But God will speak against people like that and he will punish them. It is written in the Bible: ‘God will punish everyone who does not always obey all the rules in his Law completely.’
• Romans 6:14Sin will no longer have authority over you. You do not have a new life because you obey the Law which God gave to Moses. You have a new life because God is very kind to you.
• Romans 7:5In our old lives, we did the bad things that we wanted to do. God's laws brought bad thoughts into our minds. As a result, our bodies did many wrong things. In the end, those bad things lead to death.
• Romans 9:30So, we must think about what all this means. The Gentiles were not trying to become right with God. But some of them have now become right with him. God has accepted them as right, because they have believed in Jesus Christ.
• Romans 10:3They have not understood the way that God accepts people. Instead, they tried to make their own way to become right with God. They refused to accept God's way that would make them right with him.
• Matthew 21:42Jesus said to them, ‘I am sure that you have read this in the Bible: “The builders refused to use a certain stone. They thought that it had no value. But now that stone has become the most important stone at the corner of the building. The Lord God did this. And we can see that he did something great.”
• Matthew 22:29Jesus said to the Sadducees, ‘You are wrong. This is because you do not know the Bible. And you do not know how powerful God is.
• John 5:46Moses wrote about me. So, if you had really believed Moses, you would believe me.
• John 10:34Jesus answered them, ‘It is written in your own books of God's Law that God said, “You are gods.”
• John 12:34The crowd said, ‘The Bible tells us that the Messiah will continue for ever. So why do you say, “People must lift up the Son of Man”? Who is this Son of Man?’
• John 15:25Their book of God's Law says, “They hated me without any good reason.” What that book already said long ago had to happen.
• Romans 3:19So, we know that God's Law belongs to the Jews. God told them to obey everything that his Law teaches. As a result, nobody can say: ‘God should not punish me.’ Everybody in the world must stand in front of God and he will judge them.

Commentaries on Galatians 4:21

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 21Ye that desire to be under the law - Ye who desire to incorporate the Mosaic institutions with Christianity, and thus bring yourselves into bondage to circumcision, and a great variety of oppressive rites. Do ye not hear the law? - Do ye not understand what is written in the Pentateuch relative to Abraham and his children. It is evident that the word law is used in two senses in this verse. It first means the Mosaic institutions; secondly, the Pentateuch…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 21Tell me … - In order to show fully the nature and the effect of the Law, Paul here introduces an illustration from an important fact in the Jewish history. This allegory has given great perplexity to expositors, and, in some respects, it is attended with real difficulty. An examination of the difficulties will be found in the larger commentaries. My object, without examining the expositions which have been proposed, will be to state, in as few words as…Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 21-27Verses 21-27 The difference between believers who rested in Christ only, and those who trusted in the law, is explained by the histories of Isaac and Ishmael. These things are an allegory, wherein, beside the literal and historical sense of the words, the Spirit of God points out something further. Hagar and Sarah were apt emblems of the two different dispensations of the covenant. The heavenly Jerusalem, the true church from above, represented by Sarah…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 21Do you not understand what the law actually says?: The Galatians tried to achieve righteousness through the law, but they did not truly understand its meaning (see Luke 24:25–27; 1 Timothy 1:7).Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2121. desire--of your own accord madly courting that which must condemn and ruin you. do ye not hear--do ye not consider the mystic sense of Moses' words? [Grotius]. The law itself sends you away from itself to Christ [Estius]. After having sufficiently maintained his point by argument, the apostle confirms and illustrates it by an inspired allegorical exposition of historical facts, containing in them general laws and types. Perhaps his reason for using…Read the comment

Topics related to Galatians 4:21

• Justification

In the dictionaries

• Doubt
• Flesh
• Observe
• Zealously
• Abraham
• Allegory
• Galatians, Epistle to the
• Genesis
• Hagar
• Hebrews, Epistle to the

Commentaries on Galatians 4

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Illustrated New Testament
• Burkitt’s Expository Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Family Bible Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• The People’s New Testament
• Robertson’s Word Pictures
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings