Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand what the law says?
Parallel translations
- WEB Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don’t you listen to the law?
- KJV Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
- NKJV Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?
- NASB Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the Law?
- NLT Tell me, you who want to live under the law, do you know what the law actually says?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul challenges those who want to be under the law to actually listen to what the law itself says. He prepares to show that Scripture testifies against legalism.
Overview
With pointed irony, Paul asks the would-be law-keepers whether they truly hear the law's own message. He is about to draw from the Genesis account of Abraham's sons to demonstrate that the law's narrative points beyond law-keeping to the freedom of promise. The verse turns the legalists' own authority against their error.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Gal 3:10All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
- Rom 3:19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
- Matt 22:29–32Jesus answered, “You are mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
- Gal 4:9But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
- Gal 3:23–24Before this faith came, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.
- John 15:25But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’
- Rom 10:3–10Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
- Rom 7:5–6For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.
- John 5:46–47If you had believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me.
- Rom 6:14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
- Rom 9:30–32What then will we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;
- John 12:34The crowd replied, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever. So how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”
- Matt 21:42–44Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
- John 10:34Jesus replied, “Is it not written in your Law: ‘I have said you are gods’?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
How Galatians 4:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.