Galatians 4:25

The reading, the construction and the meaning of the first clause of this verse are uncertain, and have afforded matter for considerable discussion. The genuineness of the word -Hagar" is doubtful. If it is retained, the sense will be, -For (or, as some copies read, -now") this term Hagar is the name by which Mount Sinai is called in Arabia", it therefore represents Mount Sinai, which is in Arabia, the country to which Hagar fled and which her descendants inhabit. -The word Hagar in Arabic means "a rock", and some authorities tell us that Mount Sinai is so called by the Arabs". Conybeare and Howson. But it is better to omit it, and the sense will then be, -For Mount Sinai is in Arabia", the country of Ishmael's descendants, the offspring of the bondwoman. In any case the clause is parenthetical, and the following words refer to Hagar in the preceding verse: -and this is Hagar (for Mount Sinai is situated in Arabia the country of the Ishmaelites) and it (the covenant) corresponds to Jerusalem &c."

and answereth -belongs to the same row or category, corresponds to", see note Galatians 4:22.

Jerusalem which now is Here, from the addition of the phrase -with her children" (comp. Matthew 23:37), it is evident that Jerusalem stands for the whole Jewish people, nationally considered. It is contrasted not, as might have been expected, with -Jerusalem which shall be", but with -Jerusalem which is from above"; but the antithesis is not weakened. The Heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:2) is the same as the - newJerusalem" (Revelation 21:2) of the prophetic vision, which is even now the city and the home of every true believer (Philippians 3:20). It is in heaven (or above) until the number of God's elect shall be accomplished, and then it will -come down from God out of heaven", not like a bondwoman and an outcast, but -as a bride adorned for her husband".

and is in bondage The reference is probably to the legal bondage to which every Jew, as such, was subject. But Jerusalem was at this time literally a conquered city, subject to the Imperial power of Rome.