| Geneva Study Bible For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and {c} answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and {d} is in bondage with her children. (c) Look how the case stands between Hagar and her children; even so stands it between Jerusalem and hers. (d) That is, Sinai. People's New Testament 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia. Represents Sinai. This Mount Sinai is in Arabia, the very home of Ishmael and his race. Some also add that one name of the mountain is Hagar, but this is not certain. Answereth to Jerusalem which is now. Represents the earthly Jerusalem, under bondage, bondage to the law herself, and also her children, as Hagar and her child were under bondage. Wesley's Notes 4:25 For this is mount Sinai in Arabia - That is, the type of mount Sinai. And answereth to - Resembles Jerusalem that now is, and is in bondage - Like Agar, both to the law and to the Romans. King James Translators' Notes answereth to: or, is in the same rank with Scofield Reference Notes Margin Agar Hagar. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 25. Translate, "For this word, Hagar, is (imports) Mount Sinai in Arabia (that is, among the Arabians-in the Arabian tongue)." So Chrysostom explains. Haraut, the traveller, says that to this day the Arabians call Sinai, "Hadschar," that is, Hagar, meaning a rock or stone. Hagar twice fled into the desert of Arabia (Ge 16:1-16; 21:9-21): from her the mountain and city took its name, and the people were called Hagarenes. Sinai, with its rugged rocks, far removed from the promised land, was well suited to represent the law which inspires with terror, and the spirit of bondage. answereth-literally, "stands in the same rank with"; "she corresponds to." Jerusalem which now is-that is, the Jerusalem of the Jews, having only a present temporary existence, in contrast with the spiritual Jerusalem of the Gospel, which in germ, under the form of the promise, existed ages before, and shall be for ever in ages to come. and-The oldest manuscripts read, "For she is in bondage." As Hagar was in bondage to her mistress, so Jerusalem that now is, is in bondage to the law, and also to the Romans: her civil state thus being in accordance with her spiritual state [Bengel]. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 4:21-27 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, is in a state of freedom, and is the mother of all believers, who are born of the Holy Spirit. They were by regeneration and true faith, made a part of the true seed of Abraham, according to the promise made to him. | 
