Facts About Hagar: Are They True or False? Quiz

Answer: False

False. According to Genesis 16:1, Hagar was a servant of Sarai, who would later become known as Sarah. Sarai, of course, was the wife of Abram, who would later become known as Abraham. The verse also states Hagar was Egyptian.

Incidentally, Leah's servant was named Zilpah, as per Genesis 30:9.

Answer: True

True. Genesis 16:3, in the NIV Bible, states: "So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife." The next verse reports Hagar conceived.

Answer: True

True. According to Genesis 16:15, Hagar gave birth to a son who was named Ishmael by Abram. According to Christiananswers.net, Ishmael means God hears or God will hear.

Answer: False

There is no indication Hagar gave birth to a second child after Ishmael. For the record, Haggith was a wife of David and the mother of Adonijah, as per 2 Samuel 3:4.

Answer: True

It's a bit of a long story, but things changed dramatically after Sarai granted permission to Abram to sleep with Hagar. According to the 16th chapter of Genesis, after Hagar became pregnant she despised Sarai.

Genesis 16:5-6, in the NIV, states: "Then Sarai said to Abram, 'You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.' 'Your slave is in your hands,' Abram said. 'Do with her whatever you think best.' Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her."

After fleeing, an Angel of the LORD appeared before Hagar and told her the child she would give birth to would be called Ishmael and that she should return and submit to Sarai.

Answer: False

False. There is no indication one way or the other about Hagar's singing ability. And the same holds true for Sarai.

In fact, the first mention of singing in Genesis does not appear until the 31st chapter. In that chapter, Laban admonishes Jacob for leaving secretly with Rachel and Leah.

Genesis 31:26-28, in the NIV, states: "Then Laban said to Jacob, 'What have you done? You've deceived me, and you've carried off my daughters like captives in war. Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn't you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of timbrels and harps? You didn't even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. You have done a foolish thing.'"

Answer: True

The departure of Hagar and her son Ishmael is one of the better known stories in Genesis. Genesis 21:14, in the NIV, states: "Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba."

At one point, Hagar was apparently afraid her son would die as verse 16 tells of her sobbing. Then a miracle happened.

Genesis 21:17-20 states: "God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, 'What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.' Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt."

Answer: False

False. There is no indication of this in Scripture. In fact, after Hagar departed from Abraham and Sarah, there is no mention of her ever being in contact with the couple again. However, according to Genesis 25:9, Ishmael returned in later life to help his half-brother Isaac bury Abraham.

Answer: False

There is no other woman in the Old Testament with such a name. In fact, there isn't a woman in the New Testament who shares the name either. According to the Web site Christiananswers.net, Hagar means "flight, or, according to others, stranger."

Answer: True

True. Hagar's name is mentioned in the fourth chapter of Galatians. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, was the writer of Galatians. He uses Hagar's name to symbolize people under the law while Sarah represents the followers of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 4:21-31, in the NIV, states: "Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise. These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written:
'Be glad, barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
shout for joy and cry aloud,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband.'
Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does Scripture say? 'Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son.' Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman."