17. They are ardent towards you, for no good, but they wish to shut you out, that you might be ardent towards them.
18. And it is good always to be ardent in what is good, and not only when I am present with you.
19. My little children, for whom I am again in birth pains until Messiah is formed in you,
20. even now I wish to be present with you now and to change my voice, for I have doubts about you.
21. Say to me, you who wish to be under Torah, do you not hear the Torah?
22. For it has been written that Aḇraham had two sons, one by a female servant, the other by a free woman.
23. But he who was of the female servant was born according to the flesh, and he of the free woman through promise.
24. This is allegorical, for these are the two covenants: one indeed from Mount Sinai which brings forth slavery, which is Hag̅ar,
25. for this Hag̅ar is Mount Sinai in Araḇia, and corresponds to Yerushalayim which now is, and is in slavery with her children.
26. But the Yerushalayim above is free, which is the mother of us all.
27. For it has been written, “Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear! Break forth and shout, you who do not have birth pains! For the deserted one has many more children than she who has a husband.”