The object of the Galatians’ attention had become Torah observance, which Paul here calls “the weak and miserable basic principles”—carrying on the epithet τὰ στοιχεῖα (“basic principles”) used for the Mosaic law in v 3 and adding the highly uncomplimentary adjectives ἀσθενῆ (“weak,” “powerless,” “feeble”) and πτωχά (“poor,” “beggarly,” “miserable,” “impotent”). The use of πάλιν (“again,” “once more”) that appears here and in the appended relative clause points up the fact that Paul lumped