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

¹ Now when the Lord learned that the Pharisees had heard of Jesus gaining and baptizing more disciples than John ² (though Jesus himself did not baptize, it was his disciples), ³ he left Judaea and went back to Galilee. ⁴ He had to pass through Samaria, ⁵ and in so doing he arrived at a Samaritan town called Sychar; it lay near the territory which Jacob had given to his son Joseph, ⁶ and Jacob's spring was there. Jesus, exhausted by the journey, sat down at the spring, just as he was. It was about noon,

⁷ and a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink" ⁸ (his disciples had gone to the town to buy some food).

⁹ The Samaritan woman said, "What? You are a Jew, and you ask me for a drink ??me, a Samaritan!" (Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

¹⁰ Jesus answered, "If you knew what is the free gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him instead, and he would have given you 'living' water."

¹¹ "Sir," said the woman, "you have nothing to draw water with, and it is a deep well; where do you get your 'living' water? ¹² Are you a greater man than Jacob, our ancestor? He gave us this well, and he drank from it, with his sons and his cattle."

¹³ Jesus answered, "Anyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but anyone who drinks the water I shall give him will never thirst any more; the water I shall give him will turn into a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

¹⁵ "Ah, sir," said the woman, "give me this water, so that I need not thirst or come all this road to draw water."

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, "Go and call your husband, then come back here."

¹⁷ The woman replied, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You were right in saying, 'I have no husband'; ¹⁸ you have had five husbands, and he whom you have now espoused is not your husband. That was a true word."

¹⁹ "Sir," said the woman, "I see you are a prophet. ²⁰ Now our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, whereas you Jews declare the proper place for worship is at Jerusalem."

²¹ "Woman," said Jesus, "believe me, the time is coming when you will be worshipping the Father neither on this mountain nor at Jerusalem. ²² You are worshipping something you do not know; we are worshipping what we do know ??for salvation comes from the Jews. ²³ But the time is coming, it has come already, when the real worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in reality; for these are the worshippers that the Father wants. ²⁴ God is Spirit, and his worshippers must worship him in Spirit and in reality."

²⁵ The woman said to him, "Well, I know messiah (which means Christ) is coming. When he arrives, he will explain it all to us."

²⁶ "I am messiah," said Jesus, "I who am talking to you."