Now Jacob's well was there,.... So called, either because it was dug by him; or because he and his family made use of it, when in those parts, as in Joh 4:12, though no mention is made of it elsewhere, unless any reference is had to it in the blessing of Joseph, to whom this place belonged, Ge 49:22, as Dr.
Lightfoot thinks, or in De 33:28, as Grotius suggests: in the Talmud there is mention made, of rkwo Nye, "the fountain of Sochar"; and may not improperly be rendered, "the well of Sychar": but whether the same with this, is not certain; that appears to be a great way from Jerusalem, as this also was, even forty miles:Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey; having travelled on foot, from Judea thither; and he having a body like to ours, subject to weariness, and which proves the truth and reality of it, was greatly fatigued; having very probably travelled all that morning, if not a day, or days before:sat thus on the well; or by it; by the side of it, upon the brink of it, as Nonnus paraphrases it, upon the bare ground.
The Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions, leave out "thus"; and the Ethiopic version reads it, "there"; but it is rightly retained, and is emphatical; and signifies, that he sat like a weary person, glad to set himself down any where; and not caring how, or where, he sat to rest his weary limbs:and it was about the sixth hour; about twelve o'clock at noon.
The Ethiopic version adds by way of explanation, and "it was then noon"; and all the Oriental versions omit wsei, "about"; rendering it, "it was the sixth hour": and now Christ had been travelling all the morning, and it was a time of day to take some refreshment, which as yet he had not, the disciples being gone to buy food; and a time of day also, when the sun if out, and has any strength, beats with its greatest vehemence; and all which considered, it is no wonder that he should be weary, faint, and thirsty.
T. Hieron. Shekalim, fol. 48. 4. T. Bab. Bava Kama, fol. 82. 2. & Menachot, fol. 64. 2. & Gloss. in Sanhedrin, fol. 11.