This was near to Shechem, one of the most ancient cities of Canaan,
which was the capital of the kingdom of Israel in the time of Jeroboam,
and was associated with some of the most interesting events of
patriarchal times, as well as with the discourse of Christ to the woman
of Samaria, which resulted in the conversion of several of the
Samaritans to the true faith. “I found this well,” says a late traveler,
“in the midst of the ruins of a magnificent building that once covered
and adorned it. Hewn stones, blocks of marble, and fragments of granite
columns, were to be seen amid the general wreck. The narrow mouth of the
well was stopped up with large loose stones, at which we all tugged
until I nearly broke my back; but one of them defied our utmost
endeavors. I kneeled down and peeped into the arched chamber, from the
floor of which the well proper is sunk into the living rock some hundred
feet or more. A little, gray-headed old Arab held my horse; the younger
men stood around and looked on, while I sat down at the indubitable well
of the patriarch, and read: ‘Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his
journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There
cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me
to drink. (For his disciples had gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
Then saith the woman unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest
drink of me, who am a woman of Samaria? (for the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest
the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink,
thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living
water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with,
and the well is deep; from whence, then, hast thou that living water?
Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank
thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and
said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life.’ Here I closed the book, and
with a gush of unutterable joy, exclaimed,
‘Spring up, O well, I ever cry, spring up within MY soul!’”