John 4:1-26

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

1 When Jesus[a] knew that the Pharisees heard He was making and baptizing more disciples than John
2 (though Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were),
3 He left Judea and went again to Galilee.
4 He had to travel through Samaria,
5 so He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property[b] that Jacob had given his son Joseph.[c]
6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, worn out from His journey, sat down at the well. It was about six in the evening.[d]
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. "Give Me a drink," Jesus said to her,
8 for His disciples had gone into town to buy food.
9 "How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" she asked Him. For Jews do not associate with[e] Samaritans.[f]
10 Jesus answered, "If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would ask Him, and He would give you living water."
11 "Sir," said the woman, "You don't even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this 'living water'?
12 You aren't greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock."
13 Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again.
14 But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again-ever! In fact, the water I will give him will become a well [g] of water springing up within him for eternal life."
15 "Sir," the woman said to Him, "give me this water so I won't get thirsty and come here to draw water."
16 "Go call your husband," He told her, "and come back here."
17 "I don't have a husband," she answered. "You have correctly said, 'I don't have a husband,' " Jesus said.
18 "For you've had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true."
19 "Sir," the woman replied, "I see that You are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain,[h] yet you [Jews] say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem."
21 Jesus told her, "Believe Me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22 You Samaritans [i] worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.
23 But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants 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 Messiah[j] is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will explain everything to us."
26 "I am [He]," Jesus told her, "the One speaking to you."

Images for John 4:1-26

Footnotes 10

  • [a]. Other mss read the Lord
  • [b]. Lit piece of land
  • [c]. Gn 48:22
  • [d]. Lit the sixth hour; see note at Jn 1:39; an alternate time reckoning would be noon
  • [e]. Or do not share vessels with
  • [f]. Other mss omit For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
  • [g]. Or spring
  • [h]. Mount Gerizim, where there had been a Samaritan temple that rivaled Jerusalem's
  • [i]. Samaritans is implied since the Gk verb and pronoun are pl.
  • [j]. In the NT, the word Messiah translates the Gk word Christos ("Anointed One"), except here and in Jn 1:41 where it translates Messias.
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