John 4:12

Our ancestor Jacob left us this well. He drank water from it, and there was enough good water so that his sons and his flocks of sheep and goats drank from it also. Do you claim that you are greater than Jacob, and because of that you can give us life-giving water?”

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

In Context

11She thought he was talking about ordinary water. So she said to him, “Sir, you do not have a bucket or a rope with which to get water from the well, and the well is deep. So since you cannot get water from this well, where can you get that life-giving water?

13Jesus replied to her, “Everyone who drinks water from this well will later become thirsty again.

Read all of John 4

Cross References

Isaiah 53:2While God watches, his servant will grow up appearing/seeming to be very insignificant/unimportant, like a weak young plant that shoots up from a root of a tree that is growing in dry ground. There will be nothing beautiful or majestic about him, nothing that would cause us to want to be with him.

John 4:6The well that used to belong to Jacob was on that plot of ground. Jesus was tired from walking. So while we disciples went into the town to buy some food, he sat down alongside the well. It was about noontime. A woman who lived there in Samaria came to get some water from the well. Jesus said to her, “Will you give me from the well some water to drink?” The woman knew that Jews did not like ◄ to touch things that belong to Samaritans/ to come near Samaritans►, (OR, Jews did not like to associate with Samaritans,)

Hebrews 3:3Just like every house is made by someone {as someone makes every house}, Jesus made everything, and he is God/Divine. So God has considered that Jesus is worthy that people honor him more than they honor Moses, just like the one who builds a house deserves that people honor him more than they should honor the house he built.

Matthew Henry on John 4:5-27

Christ at the Well of Samaria. 4 And he must needs go through Samaria. 5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. 7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. 8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) 9 Then saith the woman of Samaria… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

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