40 When therefore the Samaritans came to him they asked him to abide with them, and he abode there two days.
And he said, Let me go, for the dawn ariseth. And he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.
Take fast hold of instruction, let [her] not go: keep her, for she is thy life.
Thou hope of Israel, its Saviour in the time of trouble, why wilt thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a traveller that turneth aside to stay a night?
But the man out of whom the demons had gone besought him that he might be with him. But he sent him away, saying,
And when he came up to the place, Jesus looked up and saw him, and said to him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for to-day I must remain in thy house. And he made haste and came down, and received him with joy. And all murmured when they saw [it], saying, He has turned in to lodge with a sinful man. But Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I return [him] fourfold. And Jesus said to him, To-day salvation is come to this house, inasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.
And they constrained him, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is declining. And he entered in to stay with them.
But [as] fellow-workmen, we also beseech that ye receive not the grace of God in vain: (for he says, I have listened to thee in an accepted time, and I have helped thee in a day of salvation: behold, now [is the] well-accepted time; behold, now [the] day of salvation:)
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on John 4
Commentary on John 4 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 4
It was, more than any thing else, the glory of the land of Israel, that it was Emmanuel's land (Isa. 8:8), not only the place of his birth, but the scene of his preaching and miracles. This land in our Saviour's time was divided into three parts: Judea in the south, Galilee in the north, and Samaria lying between them. Now, in this chapter, we have Christ in each of these three parts of that land.
Jhn 4:1-3
We read of Christ's coming into Judea (ch. 3:22), after he had kept the feast at Jerusalem; and now he left Judea four months before harvest, as is said here (v. 35); so that it is computed that he staid in Judea about six months, to build upon the foundation John had laid there. We have no particular account of his sermons and miracles there, only in general, v. 1.
Jhn 4:4-26
We have here an account of the good Christ did in Samaria, when he passed through that country in his way to Galilee. The Samaritans, both in blood and religion, were mongrel Jews, the posterity of those colonies which the king of Assyria planted there after the captivity of the ten tribes, with whom the poor of the land that were left behind, and many other Jews afterwards, incorporated themselves. They worshipped the God of Israel only, to whom they erected a temple on mount Gerizim, in competition with that at Jerusalem. There was great enmity between them and the Jews; the Samaritans would not admit Christ, when they saw he was going to Jerusalem (Lu. 9:53); the Jews thought they could not give him a worse name than to say, He is a Samaritan. When the Jews were in prosperity, the Samaritans claimed kindred to them (Ezra 4:2), but, when the Jews were in distress, they were Medes and Persians; see Joseph. Antiq. 11.340-341; 12.257. Now observe,
Observe,
Jhn 4:27-42
We have here the remainder of the story of what happened when Christ was in Samaria, after the long conference he had with the woman.
Jhn 4:43-54
In these verses we have,
Observe,