John 4:1–42

¹When Jesus realized that the Pharisees were aware He^a was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John ²(although it was not Jesus who baptized, but His disciples), ³He left Judea and returned to Galilee.

⁴Now He had to pass through Samaria. ⁵So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Since Jacob’s well was there, Jesus, weary from His journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.^b

⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” ⁸(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

⁹“You are a Jew,” said the woman. “How can You ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)^c

¹⁰Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

¹¹“Sir,” the woman replied, “You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then will You get this living water? ¹²Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock?”

¹³Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. ¹⁴But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”

¹⁵The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷“I have no husband,” the woman replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are correct to say that you have no husband. ¹⁸In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. You have spoken truthfully.”

¹⁹“Sir,” the woman said, “I see that You are a prophet. ²⁰Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹“Believe Me, woman,” Jesus replied, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him. ²⁴God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

²⁵The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”

²⁶Jesus answered, “I who speak to you am He.”

²⁷Just then His disciples returned and were surprised that He was speaking with a woman. But no one asked Him, “What do You want from her?” or “Why are You talking with her?”

²⁸Then the woman left her water jar, went back into the town, and said to the people, ²⁹“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” ³⁰So they left the town and made their way toward Jesus.

³¹Meanwhile the disciples urged Him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

³²But He told them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³So the disciples asked one another, “Could someone have brought Him food?”

³⁴Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. ³⁵Do you not say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ripe^d for harvest.

³⁶Already the reaper draws his wages and gathers a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷For in this case the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. ³⁸I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the hard work, and now you have taken up their labor.”

³⁹Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days.

⁴¹And many more believed because of His message. ⁴²They said to the woman, “We now believe not only because of your words; we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man truly is the Savior of the world.”