John 4:1–14

A Samaritan Woman Meets Jesus at a Well

¹Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was making and baptizing more disciples than John. ²(Actually, Jesus was not baptizing people. His disciples were.) ³So he left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee. 

⁴Jesus had to go through Samaria. ⁵He arrived at a city in Samaria called Sychar. Sychar was near the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s Well was there. Jesus sat down by the well because he was tired from traveling. The time was about noon. 

⁷A Samaritan woman went to get some water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink of water.” ⁸(His disciples had gone into the city to buy some food.) 

⁹The Samaritan woman asked him, “How can a Jewish man like you ask a Samaritan woman like me for a drink of water?” (Jews, of course, don’t associate with Samaritans.) 

¹⁰Jesus replied to her, “If you only knew what God’s gift is and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him for a drink. He would have given you living water.” 

¹¹The woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have anything to use to get water, and the well is deep. So where are you going to get this living water? ¹²You’re not more important than our ancestor Jacob, are you? He gave us this well. He and his sons and his animals drank water from it.” 

¹³Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will become thirsty again. ¹⁴But those who drink the water that I will give them will never become thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give them will become in them a spring that gushes up to eternal life.”