Jacob’s well is one of the few spots about the position of which all travellers are agreed. Jesus, passing from south to west would pass up the valley of Mochna until the road turns sharp to the west, to enter the valley of Sichem between Ebal and Gerizim. Here is Jacob’s field, and in the field is Jacob’s well. It is dug in the rock, and is about 9 feet in diameter. The older travellers described it as more than 100 feet deep, and with several feet of water. Modern travellers have generally found it dry. Wilson describes it, in 1843, as only 75 feet deep.
Sat thus on the well. — Better, was sitting thus at the well. The words are one of the instances of exact knowledge which meet us in this Gospel. The tense is the descriptive imperfect. He was thus sitting when the woman came. He thus recalls the picture as it was impressed and remained fixed in the writer’s mind. He saw Him, wearied by the noontide journey, sitting thus by the well, while they went on to the city to procure food. The reality of this fatigue, as one of the instances witnessing to the reality of His human nature, is important.
About the sixth hour — i.e., as elsewhere in St. John, following the ordinary mode of counting, about 12 o’clock. (Comp. Note on John 1:39.) It is contended, on the other hand, that this was not the usual time for women to resort to the wells to draw water, but the narrative perhaps implies an unusual hour, as it speaks of only one woman there.