Brothers and sisters, ¹  I offer an example from everyday life: ²  When a covenant ³  has been ratified, ⁴  even though it is only a human contract, no one can set it aside or add anything to it.

These things may be treated as an allegory, ¹  for these women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar.

What I am saying is this: The law that came four hundred thirty years later does not cancel a covenant previously ratified by God, ¹  so as to invalidate the promise.