John 4:4-42

New International Version

⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria.^{(A) 5} So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.^{(B) 6} Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”^{(C) 8} (His disciples had gone into the town^(D) to buy food.)

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan^(E) woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^[a])

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”^(F)

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well^(G) and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.^(H) Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water^(I) welling up to eternal life.”^(J)

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty^(K) and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

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

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.^{(L) 20} Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,^(M) but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”^(N)

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming^(O) when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.^{(P) 22} You Samaritans worship what you do not know;^(Q) we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.^{(R) 23} Yet a time is coming and has now come^(S) when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit^(T) and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit,^(U) and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

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

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”^(W)

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

²⁷ Just then his disciples returned^(X) and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.^(Y) Could this be the Messiah?”^{(Z) 30} They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi,^(AA) eat something.”

³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat^(AB) that you know nothing about.”

³³ Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will^(AC) of him who sent me and to finish his work.^{(AD) 35} Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.^{(AE) 36} Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests^(AF) a crop for eternal life,^(AG) so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’^(AH) is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Many Samaritans Believe

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town^(AI) believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”^{(AJ) 40} So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers.

⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”^(AK)