John 4:6

Jacob's well Or, spring (John 4:11). It still exists, but without spring-water; one of the few sites about which there is no dispute, in the entrance to the valley between Ebal and Gerizim.

sat thus on the well Or, was sitting thus(just as He was) by the spring. All these details mark the report as of one who had full information.

about the sixth hour See on John 1:39. This case again is not decisive as to S. John's mode of reckoning the hours. On the one hand, noon was an unusual hour for drawing water. On the other, a woman whose life was under a cloud (John 4:18) might select an unusual hour; and at 6 p.m. numbers would probably have been coming to draw, and the conversation would have been disturbed. Again, after 6 p.m. there would be rather short time for all that follows. These two instances (John 1:39 and this) lend no strong support to the antecedently improbable theory that S. John's method of counting the hours is different from the Synoptists.