The warning in this verse indicates that Paul pictures the Galatians as furiously fighting each other. The verb translated hurting is literally “to bite” and refers primarily to snakes and beasts. The verb translated harming is literally “devour” or “gulp down,” again used of wild beasts. It is clear, therefore, that Paul is comparing the Galatians to wild animals, and Good News Translation makes this explicit. Other translations do not mention animals at all (the phrase like wild animals does not occur in the Greek text) but try to recapture the image by the way they render the verbs (Jerusalem Bible “if you go snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces”; New English Bible “if you go on fighting one another, tooth and nail”). In referring to animals, it is important to identify the kinds of animals which would normally be wild or vicious, for example, “if you behave like wild animals,” or “… savage animals.” Hurting and harming each other may be rendered in some languages as “causing pain and suffering to one another.”

The expression watch out may be rendered simply as “beware,” or “I warn you.”

The result of all this, Paul asserts, is mutual destruction: you will completely destroy one another. The verb translated “completely destroy” is literally “to consume.” It is often used to describe the destruction caused by fire. The basic idea is that everything is destroyed—nothing remains.

What will be destroyed is either the Galatians themselves (New American Bible “you will end up in mutual destruction!”; also Good News Translation, New English Bible) or the Christian fellowship (Phillips “you destroy your fellowship altogether”; Jerusalem Bible “you will destroy the whole community”).

In light of Paul’s use of the present tense in the verbs, he is evidently thinking of an actual case. This means that the false teachers’ efforts have resulted in chaos and confusion among the Galatian believers, and one should translate this as an actual fact.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .