John 4:7-38

English Standard Version

⁷ A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ^(A)“Give me a drink.” ⁸ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (^(B)For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you ^(C)living water.” ¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ^12 (D)Are you greater than our father Jacob? ^(E)He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” ¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but ^(F)whoever drinks of the water that I will give him ^(G)will never be thirsty again.^[a] The water that I will give him will become ^(H)in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, ^(I)give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, ^(J)call your husband, and come here.” ¹⁷ The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that ^(K)you are ^(L)a prophet. ^20 (M)Our fathers worshiped on ^(N)this mountain, but you say that ^(O)in Jerusalem is ^(P)the place where people ought to worship.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, ^(Q)“Woman, believe me, ^(R)the hour is coming when ^(S)neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ^22 (T)You worship what you do not know; ^(U)we worship what we know, for ^(V)salvation is ^(W)from the Jews. ²³ But ^(X)the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father ^(Y)in spirit and ^(Z)truth, for the Father ^(AA)is seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that ^(AB)Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, ^(AC)he will tell us all things.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, ^(AD)“I who speak to you am he.”

²⁷ Just then ^(AE)his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸ So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man ^(AF)who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” ³⁰ They went out of the town and were coming to him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, ^(AG)“Rabbi, eat.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³ So the disciples said to one another, ^(AH)“Has anyone brought him something to eat?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, ^(AI)“My food is ^(AJ)to do the will of him who sent me and ^(AK)to accomplish his work. ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that ^(AL)the fields are white for harvest. ³⁶ Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that ^(AM)sower and ^(AN)reaper ^(AO)may rejoice together. ³⁷ For here the saying holds true, ^(AP)‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap ^(AQ)that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, ^(AR)and you have entered into their labor.”