John 4:1-26 - The Samaritan Woman At Jacob's Well

¹ Now when Jesus realized that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John ² although it was not Jesus who did the baptizing but his disciples ³ he left Judea and went back to Galilee. ⁴ Now it was necessary for him to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob's Well was also there, and Jesus, tired out by the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus told her, "Please give me a drink," ⁸ since his disciples had gone off into town to buy food.

⁹ The Samaritan woman asked him, "How can you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" Because Jews do not have anything to do with Samaritans.

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, "Please give me a drink,' you would have been the one to ask him, and he would have given you living water."

¹¹ The woman told him, "Sir, you don't have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where are you going to get this living water? ¹² You're not greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it, along with his sons and his flocks, are you?"

¹³ Jesus answered her, "Everyone who drinks this water will become thirsty again. ¹⁴ But whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never become thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become a well of water for him, springing up to eternal life."

¹⁵ The woman told him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I won't get thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

¹⁶ He told her, "Go and call your husband, and come back here."

¹⁷ The woman answered him, "I don't have a husband." ¹⁸ Jesus told her, "You are quite right in saying, "I don't have a husband,' because you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true."

¹⁹ The woman told him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet! ²⁰ Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain. But you Jews say that the place where people should worship is in Jerusalem."

²¹ Jesus told her, "Believe me, dear lady, the hour is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You don't know what you're worshiping. We Jews know what we're worshiping, because salvation comes from the Jews. ²³ Yet the time is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Indeed, the Father is looking for people like that to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

²⁵ The woman told him, "I know that the Anointed One is coming, who is being called "the Messiah'. When that person comes, he will explain everything."

²⁶ "I am he," Jesus replied, "the one who is speaking to you."