John 4:7–42

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

“Give Me a drink,” Jesus said to her, ⁸for His disciples had gone into town to buy food.

⁹“How is it that You, a Jew, ^fask for a drink from me, a Samaritan ^gwoman?” she asked Him. For Jews do not associate with ^hSamaritans. ⁱ

¹⁰Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, ^jand who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would ask Him, and He would give you living water.” ^k

¹¹“Sir,” ^lsaid 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, ^mare 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—ever! ⁿIn fact, the water I will give him will become a well ^opof water springing up within him for eternal life.” ^q

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. ²⁰Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, ^rsyet you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” ^t

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 ^uworship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. ^v23But an hour is coming, and is now here, ^wwhen the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. ²⁴God is spirit, ^xand those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” ^y

²⁵The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah ^zais coming” (who is called Christ ^b). “When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”

²⁶“I am He,” ^cJesus told her, “the One speaking to you.”

The Ripened Harvest

²⁷Just then His disciples arrived, and they were amazed that He was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do You want?” or “Why are You talking with her?”

²⁸Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the men, ²⁹“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could this be the Messiah?” ^d30They left the town and made their way to Him. ^e

³¹In the meantime the disciples kept urging Him, “Rabbi, ^feat something.”

³²But He said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

³³The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought Him something to eat?”

³⁴“My food is to do the will of Him ^gwho sent Me ^hand to finish His work,” ⁱJesus told them. ³⁵“Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open ^jyour eyes and look at the fields, for they are ready ^kfor harvest. ³⁶The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, ^lso the sower and reaper can rejoice together. ³⁷For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ ^m38I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from ⁿtheir labor.”

The Savior of the World

³⁹Now many Samaritans ^ofrom that town believed in Him because of what the woman said ^pwhen she testified, ^q“He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰Therefore, when the Samaritans came to Him, ^rthey asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days. ⁴¹Many more believed because of what He said. ^s42And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior ^tof the world.” ^u