Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

    “Dominion and fear are with God;
        he makes peace in his high heaven.
    Is there any number to his armies?
        Upon whom does his light not arise?
    How then can man be in the right before God?
        How can he who is born of woman be pure?
    Behold, even the moon is not bright,
        and the stars are not pure in his eyes;
    how much less man, who is a maggot,
        and the son of man, who is a worm!”
    
    
      Then Job answered and said:

    “How you have helped him who has no power!
        How you have saved the arm that has no strength!
    How you have counseled him who has no wisdom,
        and plentifully declared sound knowledge!
    With whose help have you uttered words,
        and whose breath has come out from you?
    The dead tremble
        under the waters and their inhabitants.
    Sheol is naked before God,
        and Abaddon has no covering.
    He stretches out the north over the void
        and hangs the earth on nothing.
    He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,
        and the cloud is not split open under them.
    He covers the face of the full moon
        and spreads over it his cloud.
    He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters
        at the boundary between light and darkness.
    The pillars of heaven tremble
        and are astounded at his rebuke.
    By his power he stilled the sea;
        by his understanding he shattered Rahab.
    By his wind the heavens were made fair;
        his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
    Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,
        and how small a whisper do we hear of him!
        But the thunder of his power who can understand?”
    
    
      And Job again took up his discourse, and said:

    “As God lives, who has taken away my right,
        and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,
    as long as my breath is in me,
        and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,
    my lips will not speak falsehood,
        and my tongue will not utter deceit.
    Far be it from me to say that you are right;
        till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
    I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;
        my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.
    
    
    “Let my enemy be as the wicked,
        and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.
    For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off,
        when God takes away his life?
    Will God hear his cry
        when distress comes upon him?
    Will he take delight in the Almighty?
        Will he call upon God at all times?
    I will teach you concerning the hand of God;
        what is with the Almighty I will not conceal.
    Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves;
        why then have you become altogether vain?
    
    
    “This is the portion of a wicked man with God,
        and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:
    If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword,
        and his descendants have not enough bread.
    Those who survive him the pestilence buries,
        and his widows do not weep.
    Though he heap up silver like dust,
        and pile up clothing like clay,
    he may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it,
        and the innocent will divide the silver.
    He builds his house like a moth’s,
        like a booth that a watchman makes.
    He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more;
        he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone.
    Terrors overtake him like a flood;
        in the night a whirlwind carries him off.
    The east wind lifts him up and he is gone;
        it sweeps him out of his place.
    It hurls at him without pity;
        he flees from its power in headlong flight.
    It claps its hands at him
        and hisses at him from its place. (ESV)

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

  Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

  Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

  Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written,

    “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
        break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
    For the children of the desolate one will be more
        than those of the one who has a husband.”
    
    
      Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. (ESV)