‘Jesus said to her, “You have well said that you have no husband. For you have had five husbands and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly”.'
She soon learned better. Like a bolt of lightning the reply came, tearing into her heart as He replied, “You are quite right when you say ‘I have no husband'. For you have had five husbands, and the man you are now living with is not your husband. When you say that you only speak the truth.” At these words she must have felt that all her defences were down and that she had been totally laid bare. This man knew all about her!
Whether she had been genuinely married to all five we do not need to ask. ‘Husbands' may have been intended to be a euphemism. But the one she was living with now she was not married to, either because she had not bothered or because Jesus was hinting at the idea that it was not a real marriage due to the other four.
The woman had, unknowingly to her, come to the light and it was now shining into her innermost being seeking to reveal the truth about her (John 3:18-21). The question was how she would respond.