=11, 12. Sire, Thou hast no bucket, and the well is deep.= Not spring; the water chamber, not the water source (φρέαρ not πηγή) See on ver. 6. The language is that of badinage. It is analogous to that of Nicodemus in ch. 3:4; though here, commingled with irony, there may well have been a real perplexity. The original indicates a change in the woman’s tone; she at first says, How is it that thou being a _Jew_? she now addresses him as “_Sire_” (kύριε).--=Our father Jacob=, etc. The Samaritans traced their origin back to the patriarchs, and her language here implies a claim to an ancestry superior to that of the Jews, among whom she classed Jesus. Observe an illustration of the spirit which says, What sufficed for our fathers is good enough for us, no one can be greater than they; a spirit which is fatal to all progress, in either material or spiritual things. [Illustration: AT THE WELL. “_Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst._”] 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever[130] drinketh of the water that I shall give[131] him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him[132] a well of water springing up into everlasting life. [130] ch. 6:35, 58. [131] ch. 17:2, 3; Rom. 6:23. [132] ch. 7:38. =13, 14. Every one drinking of this water=; accustomed to drink of it, and relying upon it. “The ‘drinking’ sets forth the recurrence, the interrupted seasons of the drinking of earthly water.”--(_Alford._)--=Shall thirst again.= He appeals in this to the woman’s experience, who comes daily to re-supply the ever-recurring want.--=But whosoever has drunk=; once for all; the tense (aorist, πίῃ) indicates an historical act once performed.--=That I shall give to him.= Observe the representation throughout that the water is a gift, and a gift not _received_ by Christ in common with humanity, but _given_ by Christ to humanity. The Bible may be searched in vain for similar language from any prophet or apostle.--=Shall not thirst unto eternity.= That is, shall never, even unto eternity, thirst. “The whole verse is a strong argument in favor of the doctrine of the perpetuity of grace, and the consequent perseverance and the faith of believers.”--(_Ryle._) Comp. ch. 10:28; Rom. 8:35-39; 2 Tim. 1:12.--=But the water which I shall give him.= This Christ does by giving his own life for the life of the world in his sacrifice for sin (ch. 6:51) and in his spiritual indwelling in the soul of the believer (ch. 14:19, 23).--=Shall become in him a fountain of water.= Not a _well_ (not φρέαρ but πηγή). The reason he shall never thirst is that the water which Christ gives becomes itself a water source, a spring, a perpetual fountain of supply.--=Springing up unto eternal life.= Not _into_; the preposition indicates not something into which the