Yeshua meets a Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob and their discussion about living water and worship; this woman tells her neighbors about Yeshua as the Messiah; Yeshua teaches his talmidim about their work in the harvest of souls; many Samaritans believe in Yeshua; the healing of a royal official’s son.
v 1… When therefore the Lord knew (recognized) that the Pharisees had heard (received reports about) that Yeshua was making and baptizing more talmidim than John,
v 2…although Yeshua himself was not baptizing, but his talmidim were (by his direction, in his name),
v 3… he left Judea (after Passover), and departed again into Galilee.
v 4…And he had to pass through Samaria (the country, not the city, b y God’s direction).
v 5… So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar (Shechem, now called Nablus), near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph (Gen 33.18, Josh 24.32);
v 6…and Jacob’s well was there (that he had dug). Yeshua therefore, being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by the well (on the edge). It was about the sixth hour (noon).
v 7…There came a woman of Samaria to draw water (to meet her thirst and physical needs). Yeshua said to her, “Give me a drink (approached her so he could talk with her).”
v 8… For his talmidim had gone away into the city to buy food (it seems it was permissible to buy food from the Samaritans or they were ignoring the oral laws about it).
v 9… The Samaritan woman (Samaritans were the descendants of the colonists brought in by the King of Assyria when the tribes were deported-see v 18 notes) therefore said to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew (he wore tzitzit on the corners of his garment, and she could tell by his speech and accent), ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman (it was not proper to address a woman alone, let alone a Samaritan woman who was not on personal terms with Jews-v 27)?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans (one of the 18 Edicts of the School of Shammai passed in 20 BC, a very popular school of the Pharisees that opposed the School of Hillel, where Paul was educated, said Jews were not to do this according to these edicts).
v 10… Yeshua answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God (himself and available to her), and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water (Hebrew “mayim chayim”-this alludes to Ex 17.6 and Num 20.8-13. In the sowd level, Jacob’s well is Yeshua. A well is vital to life and worth the effort to bring it to the surface. “Brides” were often found at wells. Eleazar found Rebekah, Jacob met Rachel by a well, and Moses met Zipporah also. Wisdom is symbolized by a well. He is referring specifically to pardon, grace and mercy).
v 11… She said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do you get that living water (scoffing at him)?”
v 12…You are not greater than our father Jacob (they were not descendants of Jacob, but they would claim it when it suited the Samaritans, and Yeshua was greater than Jacob), are you, who gave us the well (he gave it to Joseph and his descendants, not the Samaritans), and drank of it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?” (she doesn’t understand yet that he is meaning something different than the physical, and he is greater than Abraham and all the others).
v 13… Yeshua answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water (a man-made well) shall thirst again;
v 14… but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life (John 7.39; Psa 36.8; Ezek 47; Isa 12.3; Jer 17.12-13; Isa 55.1).”
v 15… The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw (she is still thinking physically).”
v 16… He said to her, “Go call your husband, and come here (the woman is going to represent the Samaritan people).”
v 17… The woman answered and said, “I have no husband (was not in a covenant, and neither was Samaria with God).” Yeshua said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband (or covenant, Samaria broke the marriage covenant with Yehovah with other gods)’
v 18… for you have had five husbands (literally, her husbands may have divorced her for not having children, or they died. The Sadducees presented Yeshua with a case of a woman with seven husbands-Matt 22.25. However, that may not be what is going on here altogether. Samaria was the capital of the northern tribes, and they were taken into captivity in Assyria. The Assyrians replaced the tribes with five alien nations from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sephar-vain-2 Kings 17.13-33. Each of these had false gods, or “ba’alim”, the Hebrew word for “husband” or “owner.” Eventually, many of the Israelites returned and intermarried with these five nations and they became the Samaritans. They had a form of “Judaism” that was a mixture of different beliefs. The symbolism is this: the woman stands for Samaria, and her five husbands or “ba’alim” stood for the five alien nations and their false gods, baalim or husbands, and the man she was living with now, who was not her true husband, was the Samaritan religion at the time. This conversation is about true worship) and the one whom you now have (the faith you are following now) is not your husband, this you have said truly.”
v 19… The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet (she understood what Yeshua was getting at. He was talking about Samaritan worship and religious beliefs, just like the prophets of old had done, and she responds).
v 20… Our fathers worshipped in this mountain (Mount Gerizim); and you say (the Jews) that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship (Deut 12.11; 1 Kings 8.29; 2 Chr 6.6).”
v 21… Yeshua said to her, “Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father (the Temple in Jerusalem was going to be destroyed, and whatever worship they did on Mt Gerizim would cease to be also).
v 22… You worship that which you do not know (their ignorance in worship), we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews (true worshippers among the Jews, which he was a part of, knew the Lord and they had the oracles of God, the services of God and were instructed from the Torah-Zech 8.23; Rom 3.2, 9.4-5. The promises of salvation and the Messiah comes through the Jews).
v 23… But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit (as opposed to the fleshly concepts about him) and truth (as opposed to hypocrisy, with true hearts. In a short time there won’t be a Jerusalem Temple, or worship on Mount Gerizim because the Romans were going to come and destroy both); for such people the Father seeks to be his worshippers.
v 24… God is spirit (his essential nature, not material, physical, flesh); and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth (as set forth in the Scriptures).”
v 25… The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (there was a great expectation of his coming, based on the prophecies of Daniel-Luke 3.15), he who is called Messiah; when that one comes, he will declare all things to us (teaching was the role of the Messiah-Deut 18.15).”
v 26… Yeshua said to her, “I who speak to you am he (he accepts her because he was acquainted with grief and a man of sorrows, he knew what rejection was, and declaring that he was the Messiah was rarely made to others and she had no political motives. He knew the Jews rejected her and certain people have rejected her, etc).”
v 27… And at this point his talmidim came, and they marveled that he had been speaking with a woman (it was not proper to speak to a woman alone, especially a Samaritan); yet no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why do you speak with her (they had learned he had good reasons for the things he did)?”
v 28… So the woman left her water pot, and went into the city (Shechem), and said to the men,
v 29…come, see a man (a prophet, an uncommon man) who told me all things that I have done (an exaggeration); this is not the Messiah, is it (she wanted them to come to the same conclusion)?”
v 30… They went out of the city and were coming to him (she must have had a good reputation with them or they would not have listened to her).
v 31… In the meanwhile the talmidim were requesting him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
v 32… But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about (he is talking about the conversation with the woman, and the multitude that was coming to them that they did not know about. His mind was taken up with these things and he was excited about it).
v 33… The talmidim, therefore, were saying to one another, “No one brought him anything to eat, did he (because his hunger disappeared)?”
v 34… Yeshua said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, to accomplish his work.
v 35… Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest (this was around the festival of Shavuot, leading to the great harvest in the fall, during Sukkot)’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields that they are white for harvest (the large number of Samaritans that were coming and they wore white; the harvest was now).
v 36… Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit (when God’s set time comes for the conversion of someone, he makes use of his teachers and sent ones, to “cut down” and lay low the pride in a man, stripping him of his own “goodness” he thinks he has. It was time for the Samaritans to be harvested) for life eternal; that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together (their work is rewarded when the harvest comes in).
v 37… For in this the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps (now they were going to reap many souls from the Samaritans, but that seed was planted by others like the prophets and even John the Baptist and his talmidim-John 10.41; 1 Cor 3.5-9; Ecc 11.1-6).’
v 38… I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor (he predicts the salvation of Samaria, but the talmidim did not plant the seed or water it).”
v 39… And from that city, many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.”
v 40… So when the Samaritans came to him, they were asking him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days (their attitude was different than the Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Gadarenes, etc. Yeshua would later be called a “Samaritan” in John 8.48).
v 41… And many more believed because of his word;
v 42… and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know (internally, by the spirit of God) that this one is indeed the Savior of the world (the Jewish and Gentile elect-John 3.16).”
v 43… And after the two days, he went forth from there into Galilee.
v 44… For Yeshua himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country (which is why he did not go to Nazareth, where he grew up).
v 45… So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast (of Passover-John 2.23. They were required to be there and saw what happened-Exo 23.17; Deut 16.16), for they also went to the feast.
v 46… He came therefore again to Cana of Galilee where he had made the water wine. And there was a certain royal official (of Herod Antipas, who was sometimes called a “king”-Mark 6.14), whose son was sick at Capernaum (a day’s journey away).
v 47… When he heard that Yeshua had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went out to him and was requesting him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
v 48… Yeshua, therefore, said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
v 49… The royal official said to him (did not let Yeshua’s statement stop him), “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
v 50… Yeshua said to him. “Go your way; your son lives.” The man believed (trusted) the word that Yeshua spoke to him, and he started off.
v 51… And as he was now going down (from Cana to Capernaum), his slaves (servants) meet him, saying that his son was living.
v 52… So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, “Yesterday at the seventh (the number of completion and perfection, a “Sabbath” rest for his son) hour (1 pm) the fever left him (vanished).”
v 53… So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Yeshua said to him, “Your son lives”; and he himself believed, and his whole household (after he told them what happened).
v 54… This is again a second (recorded) sign that Yeshua performed, when he had come out of Judea into Galilee (the first was in John 2.11).
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