Do not go onto the road of the Gentiles: At this time, the mission of Jesus was limited to the Jews (Matthew 15:24). God would reach Gentiles (non-Jewish people) through the Jews (Isaiah 2:2–4; 42:6–7; 49:6; 60:3).
Jews saw Samaritans as impure Jews (Luke 17:18) because they married gentiles during and after the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles (2 Kings 17:24–41). The tension between Jews and Samaritans grew worse in 128 BC when John Hyrcanus, a Jewish leader, destroyed the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim (Josephus, Antiquities 13.9.1).