Conversation With a Samaritan Woman

4:4 But he had7 to pass through Samaria.8 4:5 Now he came to a Samaritan town9 called Sychar,10 near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.11 4:6 Jacob’s well was there, so Jesus, since he was tired from the journey, sat right down beside12 the well. It was about noon.13

4:7 A Samaritan woman14 came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water15 to drink.” 4:8 (For his disciples had gone off into the town to buy supplies.16)17 4:9 So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you—a Jew18—ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water19 to drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common20 with Samaritans.)21

4:10 Jesus answered22 her, “If you had known23 the gift of God and who it is who said to you, ‘Give me some water24 to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”25 4:11 “Sir,”26 the woman27 said to him, “you have no bucket and the well28 is deep; where then do you get this29 living water?30 4:12 Surely you’re not greater than our ancestor31 Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock.”32

4:13 Jesus replied,33 “Everyone who drinks some of this water will be thirsty34 again. 4:14 But whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again,35 but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain36 of water springing up37 to eternal life.” 4:15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw38 water.”39 4:16 He40 said to her, “Go call your husband and come back here.”41 4:17 The woman replied,42 “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “Right you are when you said,43 ‘I have no husband,’44 4:18 for you have had five husbands, and the man you are living with45 now is not your husband. This you said truthfully!”

4:19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see46 that you are a prophet. 4:20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain,47 and you people48 say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”49 4:21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman,50 a time51 is coming when you will worship52 the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 4:22 You people53 worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews.54 4:23 But a time55 is coming—and now is here56—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks57 such people to be58 his worshipers.59 4:24 God is spirit,60 and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 4:25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ);61 “whenever he62 comes, he will tell63 us everything.”64 4:26 Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”