Jesus goes to a town called Sychar and meets a woman near Jacob's Well. Here he encounters a woman who looks for some physical water doesn't even realize who she is encountering. Jesus tells her that if she knew who she was with she would ask for "living water." There is a picture of stark contrast between "living water" and the water from the well. Physically, living water would have been understood as running water provided by God. It's what they refer to the rain (when they get it) that comes from the mountains and waters the land. Since they live in the desert and get so little rain, they attributed this with their gods or God.

The picture of this while at a well is remarkable. She can only think about the water she needs to fill her bucket while Jesus is metaphorically talking about a source of quenchable peace and the Spirit of God internally. But for Jesus to give this woman the "Living Water" he needed to first deal with the water she put in her bucket. That is why he asks about her husband. Until we will "drop our bucket" that we keep running to other sources to fill us up, we will never experience this kind of life that Jesus provides from the inside.