John 4:13

“Jesus answered and said unto her, etc.] In a mild and gentle manner, patiently bearing all her scoffs and flouts, and continuing to instruct and inform her, concerning this living water, showing the preferableness of it to all others: whosoever drinketh of this water; meaning in that well called Jacob’s well, or any other common water: shall thirst again; as this woman had often done, and would again, as she herself knew, (<430415>John 4:15), and as Jesus did, who very likely afterwards drank of it, (<431928>John 19:28). For though water allays heat, quenches thirst, and refreshes and revives the spirits for a while, yet in process of time, natural heat increases, and thirst returns, and…”

“thirst again . . . never thirst, &c.--The contrast here is fundamental and all comprehensive. "This water" plainly means "this natural water and all satisfactions of a like earthly and perishable nature." Coming to us from without, and reaching only the superficial parts of our nature, they are soon spent, and need to be anew supplied as much as if we had never experienced them before, while the deeper wants of our being are not reached by them at all; whereas the "water" that Christ gives--spiritual life--is struck out of the very depths of our being, making the soul not a cistern, for holding water poured into it from without, but a fountain (the word had been better so rendered, to…”

“Shall thirst again - Jesus did not directly answer her question, or say that he was greater than Jacob, but he gave her an answer by which she might infer that he was. He did not despise or undervalue Jacob or his gifts; but, however great might be the value of that well, the water could not altogether remove thirst. return to 'Top of Page'”

“Whosoever: Joh 6:27, Joh 6:49; Isa 65:13, Isa 65:14; Luk 16:24 John 4:14”