4:6a
Jacob’s well was there: This well had belonged to the OT person Jacob. He dug this well, or told others to dig it, long ago. You may be able to imply that this refers to something in the distant past. For example:
The well that Jacob had dug was still there. (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
The well that used to belong to Jacob was there.
well: A well is a deep hole in the ground that has water in the bottom. People can lower buckets into the well to get water.
4:6b
Jesus, weary from His journey, sat down by the well: This clause continues to set the scene for the conversation in the rest of this section. It explains why Jesus was sitting by the well when a woman arrived. In some languages it may be natural to translate this using two clauses. For example:
Jesus was tired from his long trip, and so he sat down beside the well. (New Century Version)
weary from His journey: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as weary from His journey explains why Jesus rested. The travel made Jesus tired. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:
Jesus was tired from his long trip (New Century Version)
-or-
because the journey had made him tired
His journey: This phrase refers to the fact that Jesus had traveled a long way. In some languages it may be natural to translate journey as a clause. For example:
he had walked/traveled a long way
General Comment on 4:6b
In some languages it may be natural to reorder the information in 4:6b. You may want to first say what Jesus did and then why he did it. For example:
Jesus sat down by the well because he was tired from traveling. (God’s Word)
4:6c
It was about the sixth hour: The Berean Standard Bible translates literally the Greek clause as about the sixth hour. In New Testament times people started counting the hours of the day at sunrise, about 6 a.m. In some languages it is more natural to say it in a different way. For example:
the sun was in the center of the sky
-or-
it was the middle of the day
-or-
It was about noon. (New Revised Standard Version)
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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