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again to Galilee. On His way He came to a town called Sichar[1], where there was a well dug by the patriarch Jacob (Fig. 70). Jesus, being weary from the journey, sat down by the well, whilst His disciples went into the city to buy provisions.
But, behold, a Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water. Jesus said to her: “Give me to drink.” The woman, surprised, asked Him: “How dost Thou, being a Jew, ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan[2] woman!”
- ↑ Sichar. It was here that Abraham received a revelation from God, and raised to the Lord the first altar built in the Promised Land (Old Test. IX). Here Jacob dwelt for a long time after his return from Haran. He bought a field and dug a well which exists to this day. It is walled in and is more than eighty feet deep.
- ↑ A Samaritan. In a former chapter (Old Test. LX VII) you learnt that the Samaritans were chiefly of heathen extraction, and did not belong to the chosen people; and again (Old Test. LXXX) that they became hostile to the Jews and wished to hinder the re-building of Jerusalem. This enmity grew with time, till at length it reached such a pitch that the Jews would hold no intercourse at all with the Samaritans. This was why the woman wondered that Jesus should talk to her and ask her for water; for she believed that a Jew would rather endure thirst than ask for water from a Samaritan. She did not meet the request of Jesus in an unfriendly way, and was quite ready to draw the water for Him, but she was astonished that He should ask it of her. As a reward for her kindliness Jesus entered into conversation with her, in order to draw her on little by little to a knowledge of the Messias.
