John 4:7–42

⁷When a Samaritan woman came to the well to get some water, Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” ⁸(This happened while Jesus’ followers were in town buying some food.)

⁹The woman said, “I am surprised that you ask me for a drink, since you are a Jewish man and I am a Samaritan woman.” (Jewish people are not friends with Samaritans. ⁿ)

¹⁰Jesus said, “If you only knew the free gift of God and who it is that is asking you for water, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹The woman said, “Sir, where will you get this living water? The well is very deep, and you have nothing to get water with. ¹²Are you greater than Jacob, our father, who gave us this well and drank from it himself along with his sons and flocks?”

¹³Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty. The water I give will become a spring of water gushing up inside that person, giving eternal life.”

¹⁵The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so I will never be thirsty again and will not have to come back here to get more water.”

¹⁶Jesus told her, “Go get your husband and come back here.”

¹⁷The woman answered, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You are right to say you have no husband. ¹⁸Really you have had five husbands, and the man you live with now is not your husband. You told the truth.”

¹⁹The woman said, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that Jerusalem is the place where people must worship.”

²¹Jesus said, “Believe me, woman. The time is coming when neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain will you actually worship the Father. ²²You Samaritans worship something you don’t understand. We understand what we worship, because salvation comes from the Jews. ²³The time is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, and that time is here already. You see, the Father too is actively seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

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

²⁶Then Jesus said, “I am he—I, the one talking to you.”

²⁷Just then his followers came back from town and were surprised to see him talking with a woman. But none of them asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸Then the woman left her water jar and went back to town. She said to the people, ²⁹“Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Do you think he might be the Christ?” ³⁰So the people left the town and went to see Jesus.

³¹Meanwhile, his followers were begging him, “Teacher, eat something.”

³²But Jesus answered, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³So the followers asked themselves, “Did somebody already bring him food?”

³⁴Jesus said, “My food is to do what the One who sent me wants me to do and to finish his work. ³⁵You have a saying, ‘Four more months till harvest.’ But I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields ready for harvest now. ³⁶Already, the one who harvests is being paid and is gathering crops for eternal life. So the one who plants and the one who harvests celebrate at the same time. ³⁷Here the saying is true, ‘One person plants, and another harvests.’ ³⁸I sent you to harvest a crop that you did not work on. Others did the work, and you get to finish up their work.” ⁿ

³⁹Many of the Samaritans in that town believed in Jesus because of what the woman said: “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰When the Samaritans came to Jesus, they begged him to stay with them, so he stayed there two more days. ⁴¹And many more believed because of the things he said.

⁴²They said to the woman, “First we believed in Jesus because of what you said, but now we believe because we heard him ourselves. We know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”