John 4:4–26

⁴He had to travel through Samaria;^{o 5}so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property^G that Jacob^p had given his son Joseph.^{q 6}Jacob’s well^r was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.^H

⁷A woman of Samaria came to draw water.^s

“Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, ⁸because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.

⁹“How is it that you, a Jew,^t ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan^u woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with^I Samaritans.^J

¹⁰Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God,^v and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”^w

¹¹“Sir,”^x said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? ¹²You aren’t greater than our father Jacob,^y are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”

¹³Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. ¹⁴But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again.^z In fact, the water I will give him will become a well^Aaa of water springing up in him for eternal life.”^ab

¹⁵“Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that 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. ²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,^ac but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”^ad

²¹Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.^{ae 23}But an hour is coming, and is now here,^af when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit,^ag and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”^ah

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

²⁶Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”^ak