Verse 6
Jacob's well. This well is not mentioned in the Old Testament, but its memory has been preserved from the time of our Savior to the present day. It in an object of great interest to travellers in Palestine. It is near the foot of Mount Gerizim, on the great road from Jerusalem to Galilee. The city of Sychar, called, in the Old Testament, Shechem, afterwards, by the Romans, Neapolis, and now Nabulus, lies about half an hour's walk from the well, by a road passing westerly up a narrow valley between Gerizim and Ebal. At the foot of the mountain, east of the well, there extends, for miles, a very fertile plain, whose harvests may have suggested the image in John 4:35.
The lower part of the well is excavated in the solid rock, the mouth being covered with a vaulted chamber solid masonry. Some hundred years after Christ, as if fearing that the place might be forgotten, the Christians built a monumental church over the spot, to perpetuate its memory. The church has long since crumbled away and disappeared; but the simple subterranean architecture, which it was intended to commemorate, remains apparently unchanged.--Thus; therefore, on that account.--The sixth hour; noon.