=16. Go, call thy husband=, etc. This is in appearance a break in the conversation; it is in reality the first step toward granting the woman’s request: “Give me this water;” for the first step is to convince of sin. It is only if we confess our sins that “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Hence when Christ came to bring this water of life to the world he began by preaching the duty of repentance (Matt. 4:17; Mark 1:15). Other explanations, as that a longer conversation with the woman alone would be indecorous (_Grotius_), or that she was unable to understand Christ’s meaning and so he summoned her husband (_Cyril_, quoted in _Alford_), or that he wished her husband to share with her in the benefits of the conversation (_Chrysostom_), singularly ignore the moral meaning and continuity of the discourse. Observe Christ’s uniform way of dealing with skepticism. Its root is in sin; and he addresses not the reason, but proceeds directly to convict the conscience. It is only the sinner, conscious of sin, who ever truly finds a divine Saviour. 17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband.Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. =17, 18.= The word (ἀνήρ) in Christ’s reply, rendered _husband_, is one of more general import and is often translated _man_. But it is the ordinary word used in the N. T. for husband, and I see no reason to doubt that she had lived with five successive husbands.--From these she had been separated, from some perhaps by death, from others by divorce; at all events the last of these separations was unconcealedly illegal, and her present life was one which her own conscience condemned as licentious. Observe the severity in fact and the gentleness in form of Christ’s rebuke. It shows a full knowledge of her sin; yet it is couched in the language not of condemnation but of commendation. 19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive[133] that thou art a prophet. [133] ch. 1:48, 49. 20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain;[134] and ye say, that in Jerusalem[135] is the place where men ought to worship. [134] Judges 9:7. [135] Deut. 12:5-11; 1 Kings 9:3.