This well was dug by our Patriarch, Jacob, in the "parcel of ground" which he purchased from the sons of Hamor (Gen. 33:19). At this very site Y'shua Messiah spoke with a Samaritan woman, as recorded in John 4.

Jacob's Parcel of Ground Where He Dug His Well - Genesis 33:18-20

18 Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city. 19 He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of silver. 20 He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel ["Elohim of Israel is mighty"].

Y'shua and the Samaritan Woman at Jacob's Well - John 4

1 Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Y'shua was making and immersing more disciples than Yochanan 2 (although Y'shua himself didn’t immerse, but his disciples), 3 he left Judea, and departed into Galilee. 4 He needed to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. Y'shua therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Y'shua said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

9 The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

10 Y'shua answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where then have you that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, as did his children, and his livestock?”

13 Y'shua answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw.”

16 Y'shua said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

17 The woman answered, “I have no husband.” Y'shua said to her, “You said well, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”

19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

21 Y'shua said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father. 22 You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshippers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah comes,” (he who is called Anointed One). “When he has come, he will declare to us all things.” 26 Y'shua said to her, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.”

Jacob's Well As Seen Today

The site of Jacob's Well still exists, although it is now usually dry. It is located between Ebal and Gerizim, about 2 miles southeast of Shechem. The well is presently about 9 feet in diameter and about 75 feet in depth. In ancient times it may have been much deeper, maybe twice as deep. Digging such a well is a big job with modern equipment, how much more so digging by hand!

One commentator explains the problems with viewing the site as it exists today: "Unfortunately, the well of Jacob has not escaped that misplaced religious veneration which cannot be satisfied with leaving the object of it as it is, but must build over it a shrine to protect and make it sacred. A series of buildings of various styles, and of different ages, have cumbered the ground, choked up the well, and disfigured the natural beauty and simplicity of the spot. At present the rubbish in the well has been cleared out; but there is still a domed structure over it, and you gaze down the shaft cut in the living rock and see at a depth of 70 feet the surface of the water glimmering with a pale blue light in the darkness, while you notice how the limestone blocks that form its curb have been worn smooth, or else furrowed by the ropes of centuries."