John 7:32-52

Officers Sent to Arrest Jesus

32 The Pharisees heard the crowd ¹muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent ²officers to arrest him.

33 Jesus then said, ³"I will be with you a little longer, and then ⁴I am going to him who sent me.

34 ⁵You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come."

35 The Jews said to one another, "Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? ⁶Does he intend to go to ⁷the Dispersion among ⁸the Greeks and teach the Greeks?

36 What does he mean by saying, ⁹'You will seek me and you will not find me,' and, 'Where I am you cannot come'?"

Rivers of Living Water

37 ¹⁰On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ¹¹"If anyone thirsts, let him ¹²come to me and drink.

38 Whoever believes in me, ¹³as^[a] the Scripture has said, ¹⁴'Out of his heart will flow rivers of ¹⁵living water.'"

39 Now ¹⁶this he said about the Spirit, ¹⁷whom those who believed in him were to receive, ¹⁸for as yet the Spirit had not been ¹⁹given, ²⁰because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Division Among the People

40 When they heard these words, ²¹some of the people said, "This really is ²²the Prophet."

41 Others said, "This is ²³the Christ." But some said, ²⁴"Is the Christ to come from Galilee?

42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes ²⁵from the offspring of David, and comes ²⁶from Bethlehem, the village ²⁷where David was?"

43 So there was ²⁸a division among the people over him.

44 ²⁹Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

45 ³⁰The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why did you not bring him?"

46 The officers answered, ³¹"No one ever spoke like this man!"

47 The Pharisees answered them, ³²"Have you also been deceived?

48 ³³Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?

49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed."

50 ³⁴Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them,

51 ³⁵"Does our law judge a man without first ³⁶giving him a hearing and learning what he does?"

52 They replied, ³⁷"Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that ³⁸no prophet arises from Galilee."

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Cross References 38

1. ver. 12
2. ver. 45, 46
3. John 12:35; John 13:33; John 14:19; John 16:16-19
4. John 16:5
5. John 8:21; John 13:33
6. [John 8:22]
7. James 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1; [Isaiah 11:12; Zephaniah 3:10]
8. John 12:20
9. ver. 34
10. Leviticus 23:36; Numbers 29:35; Nehemiah 8:18
11. Isaiah 55:1; See John 4:14
12. See John 6:35
13. [Isaiah 12:3; Ezekiel 47:1]
14. John 4:14; [Proverbs 18:4]
15. See John 4:10
16. Isaiah 44:3; [1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:14]
17. Joel 2:28; Acts 2:16-18; [John 1:33; John 20:22; Luke 24:49]
18. Acts 2:4, 33
19. John 3:34; Luke 11:13
20. John 14:16, 17; John 16:7
21. See ver. 31
22. John 1:21; John 6:14; See Matthew 21:11
23. ver. 26
24. [ver. 52; John 1:46]
25. [Psalms 89:3, 4]; See Matthew 1:1
26. Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:1, 5; Luke 2:4
27. 1 Samuel 16:1
28. John 9:16; John 10:19; [ver. 12]
29. ver. 30
30. ver. 32
31. See Matthew 7:29
32. ver. 12
33. 1 Corinthians 1:20, 26; 1 Corinthians 2:8; [John 12:42]
34. John 3:1; John 19:39
35. Deuteronomy 17:6; Deuteronomy 19:15; [Acts 23:3]
36. Deuteronomy 1:16; Proverbs 18:13
37. ver. 41
38. [2 Kgs. 14:25 with Josh. 19:13]

Footnotes 1

[a]. Or let him come to me, and let him who believes in me drink. As

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.