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OET (OET-LV) Be_telling to_me, you_all wanting to_be under the_law, not are_you_all_hearing the law?
OET (OET-RV) Are you people who are under the law telling me that you’re not even hearing what the law is?
In this section, Paul explained why the Galatians should return to freedom and reject the teaching of the false teachers. He contrasted two sons of Abraham: the son of the slave woman and the son of the free woman. The son of the slave woman represented slavery to the law. The son of the free woman represented the freedom of living in the grace of Christ. Living in slavery to the law is in conflict with living in the grace of Christ. Those who live in the grace of Christ must reject slavery to the law.
Some possible headings for this section are:
Hagar and Sarah
The covenant of the promise is better than the covenant of the law
Choose grace, not the law
In this paragraph, Paul explained the difference between Abraham’s two sons.
Tell me, you who want to be under the law,
¶ Tell me, those of you who want to obey the law,
¶ Listen to me! Some of you want to obey/follow the law of Moses.
Tell me: This is a command. Paul used this command to focus the Galatians’ attention on what he was going to say next.
Another way to translate this command is:
Listen to me (NLT96)
you who want to be under the law: The clause want to be under the law means “want to obey the law of Moses.”
Some other ways to translate this clause are:
you who want to live under the law
those of you who want to obey the law
you who want to follow the law of Moses for your salvation
do you not understand what the law says?
do you know what the law actually says? (NLT)
It must be that you do not understand what the law of Moses says.
do you not understand what the law says?: This is a rhetorical question. Paul used this rhetorical question to challenge the Galatians. He used this rhetorical question to tell the Galatians that they did not listen to and understand the law. They did not understand what they were doing.
Some ways to translate this rhetorical question are:
As a rhetorical question. For example:
do you know what the law really says? (NLT96)
As a tag question. For example:
You do not understand what the law says, do you?
As a statement. For example:
It must be that you do not understand what the law says.
You should understand what the law says.
the law: Here the phrase the law refers to the five books that Moses wrote. Some other ways to translate this are:
the Jewish law
the law of Moses
the law that Moses gave/wrote
λέγετέ μοι
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Λέγετε μοί οἱ ὑπό νόμον θέλοντες εἶναι τόν νόμον οὐκ ἀκούετε)
Alternate translation: [Say to me] or [Answer me]
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / yousingular
οἱ
you_all
Here, the word you is plural. Your language may require you to mark such forms.
θέλοντες
wanting
Alternate translation: [wanting]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
ὑπὸ
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Λέγετε μοί οἱ ὑπό νόμον θέλοντες εἶναι τόν νόμον οὐκ ἀκούετε)
See how you translated the word under in [3:23](../03/23.md) where it is used with the same meaning.
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / rquestion
λέγετέ μοι, οἱ ὑπὸ νόμον θέλοντες εἶναι, τὸν νόμον οὐκ ἀκούετε
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Λέγετε μοί οἱ ὑπό νόμον θέλοντες εἶναι τόν νόμον οὐκ ἀκούετε)
Paul is not asking for information, but is using the question form in order to cause the Galatian believers to think about and reflect on what he is going to say next. If you would not use a rhetorical question for this purpose in your language, you could translate his words as a statement or an exclamation and communicate the emphasis in another way. Alternate translation: [Each of you who desire to be under the law. You should listen to what the law actually says] or [Those of you who desire to be under the law. You pay closer attention to what the law really teaches]
τὸν νόμον οὐκ ἀκούετε
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Λέγετε μοί οἱ ὑπό νόμον θέλοντες εἶναι τόν νόμον οὐκ ἀκούετε)
Alternate translation: [do you not comprehend what the law is teaching] or [do you not understand what the law is actually teaching]
4:21 do you know what the law actually says? They were trying to achieve righteousness by the law, but they did not truly understand its meaning (cp. Luke 24:25-27; 1 Tim 1:7).
OET (OET-LV) Be_telling to_me, you_all wanting to_be under the_law, not are_you_all_hearing the law?
OET (OET-RV) Are you people who are under the law telling me that you’re not even hearing what the law is?
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.
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