John 4 - Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

4 When Jesus^[a] knew that the Pharisees^(A) heard He was making^(B) and baptizing more disciples than John^{(C) 2} (though Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), ³ He left Judea^(D) and went again to Galilee.^{(E) 4} He had to travel through Samaria,^{(F) 5} so He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property^[b] that Jacob^(G) had given his son Joseph.^{(H) 6} Jacob’s well^(I) was there, and Jesus, worn out from His journey, sat down at the well. It was about six in the evening.^[c]

⁷ A woman of Samaria came to draw water.^(J)

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

⁹ “How is it that You, a Jew,^(K) ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan^(L) woman?” she asked Him. For Jews do not associate with^[d] Samaritans.^[e]

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

¹¹ “Sir,”^(O) said the woman, “You don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do You get this ‘living water’? ¹² You aren’t greater than our father Jacob,^(P) are You? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”

¹³ Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. ¹⁴ But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again—ever!^(Q) In fact, the water I will give him will become a well^[f](R) of water springing up within him for eternal life.”^(S)

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. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain,^[g](T) yet you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”^(U)

²¹ Jesus told her, “Believe Me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans^[h] worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.^{(V) 23} But an hour is coming, and is now here,^(W) when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. ²⁴ God is spirit,^(X) and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”^(Y)

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

²⁶ “I am He,”^(AB) Jesus told her, “the One speaking to you.”

The Ripened Harvest

²⁷ Just 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?”

²⁸ Then 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?”^{(AC) 30} They left the town and made their way to Him.^(AD)

³¹ In the meantime the disciples kept urging Him, “Rabbi,^(AE) eat something.”

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

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

³⁴ “My food is to do the will of Him^(AF) who sent Me^(AG) and to finish His work,”^(AH) Jesus 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^[j] your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ready^[k] for harvest. ³⁶ The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life,^(AI) so the sower and reaper can rejoice together. ³⁷ For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’^{(AJ) 38} I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from^[l] their labor.”

The Savior of the World

³⁹ Now many Samaritans^(AK) from that town believed in Him because of what the woman said^[m] when she testified,^(AL) “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ Therefore, when the Samaritans came to Him,^(AM) they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days. ⁴¹ Many more believed because of what He said.^{[n] 42} And 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^(AN) of the world.”^[o]

A Galilean Welcome

⁴³ After two days He left there for Galilee.^{(AO) 44} Jesus Himself testified^(AP) that a prophet has no honor in his own country.^{(AQ) 45} When^(AR) they entered Galilee, the Galileans^(AS) welcomed Him because they had seen everything He did in Jerusalem^(AT) during the festival.^(AU) For they also had gone to the festival.

The Second Sign: Healing an Official’s Son

⁴⁶ Then He went again to Cana^(AV) of Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum.^{(AW) 47} When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea^(AX) into Galilee, he went to Him and pleaded with Him to come down and heal his son, for he was about to die.

⁴⁸ Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders,^(AY) you will not believe.”^(AZ)

⁴⁹ “Sir,”^(BA) the official said to Him, “come down before my boy dies!”

⁵⁰ “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what^[p] Jesus said to him and departed.

⁵¹ While he was still going down, his slaves met him saying that his boy was alive. ⁵² He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at seven in the morning^[q] the fever left him,” they answered. ⁵³ The father^(BB) realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” Then he himself believed, along with his whole household.

⁵⁴ This, therefore, was the second sign^(BC) Jesus performed after He came from Judea to Galilee.^(BD)

Footnotes

1. John 4:1 Other mss read the Lord
2. John 4:5 Lit piece of land
3. John 4:6 Lit the sixth hour; see note at Jn 1:39; an alt. time reckoning would be noon
4. John 4:9 Or do not share vessels with
5. John 4:9 Other mss omit For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
6. John 4:14 Or spring
7. John 4:20 Mount Gerizim, where there had been a Samaritan temple that rivaled Jerusalem’s
8. John 4:22 Samaritans is implied since the Gk verb and pronoun are pl.
9. John 4:25 In the NT, the word Messiah translates the Gk word Christos (“Anointed One”), except here and in Jn 1:41 where it translates Messias.
10. John 4:35 Lit Raise
11. John 4:35 Lit white
12. John 4:38 Lit you have entered into
13. John 4:39 Lit because of the woman’s word
14. John 4:41 Lit because of His word
15. John 4:42 Other mss add the Messiah
16. John 4:50 Lit the word
17. John 4:52 Or seven in the evening; lit at the seventh hour; see note at Jn 1:39; an alt time reckoning would be at one in the afternoon

Cross references

1. 4:1 : Mk 7:3
2. 4:1 : Mt 28:19-20
3. 4:1 : Mk 1:4
4. 4:3 : Lk 1:5
5. 4:3 : Mt 17:22
6. 4:4 : Ac 1:8
7. 4:5 : Ps 22:23; Mt 1:2; Lk 1:33
8. 4:5 : Gn 30:24; 33:19; 48:22; 49:22
9. 4:6 : Jms 3:11
10. 4:7 : Gn 24:11-17; 29:2-12
11. 4:9 : Jn 11:36; Ac 14:1; Rv 2:9
12. 4:9 : Lk 9:52; Ac 1:8
13. 4:10 : Ac 8:20
14. 4:10 : Gn 26:19; Ps 36:7-9; Is 49:10; 55:1; Jr 2:13; Zch 14:8; Jn 7:38; Rv 7:17; 21:6; 22:1, 17
15. 4:11 : Lk 10:1
16. 4:12 : Mt 1:2; Lk 1:33
17. 4:14 : Jn 6:35; 7:37; 1Co 4:11; Rv 7:16; 21:6; 22:17
18. 4:14 : Jms 3:11
19. 4:14 : Jn 12:25; Ac 13:48; Rm 8:2; 1Jn 2:25
20. 4:20 : Dt 11:29–12:14; 27:3; Jos 24:1
21. 4:20 : Mt 23:37
22. 4:22 : Gn 12:1-7; Is 2:3; Mal 1:11; Mt 15:24; Jn 11:36; Rm 3:1-2; 9:4-5; 15:8-9
23. 4:23 : Jn 5:25-29; 16:32
24. 4:24 : Jn 1:33; 2Th 2:10; Jd 20
25. 4:24 : 2Th 2:10
26. 4:25 : Mt 1:17; Eph 5:2
27. 4:25 : Ex 29:29; Jn 1:41
28. 4:26 : Ex 3:14; Ps 45:8; Jn 8:24
29. 4:29 : Mt 1:17
30. 4:30 : Mk 1:45
31. 4:31 : Jn 11:8
32. 4:34 : Eph 1:9; 1Jn 2:17
33. 4:34 : Jn 5:30
34. 4:34 : Jn 5:36
35. 4:36 : Mk 10:17; Jn 12:25; Ac 13:48
36. 4:37 : Lv 26:16; Dt 20:6; Jb 31:8; Mc 6:15; Mt 25:24; Lk 19:21
37. 4:39 : Lk 9:52; Ac 1:8
38. 4:39 : Jn 15:26; Ac 26:5
39. 4:40 : Mk 1:45
40. 4:42 : 2Pt 3:18
41. 4:43 : Is 9:1-2; Mt 17:22
42. 4:44 : Jn 15:26; Ac 26:5
43. 4:44 : Mt 13:57; Mk 6:4; Lk 4:24
44. 4:45 : Mt 4:17; Mk 1:14-15
45. 4:45 : Mt 26:69; Mk 14:70; Lk 13:1-2; 22:59; 23:6; Ac 1:11; 2:7; 5:37
46. 4:45 : Mt 23:37
47. 4:45 : Jn 2:23; 5:1
48. 4:46 : Jn 2:1, 11; 21:2
49. 4:46 : Lk 10:15
50. 4:47 : Lk 1:5
51. 4:48 : Ex 7:3-4; Mk 13:22; Jn 2:23-25; 6:26
52. 4:48 : Jn 3:16; 6:64; 20:25
53. 4:49 : Lk 10:1
54. 4:53 : Lk 11:11; Col 3:21
55. 4:54 : Jn 2:11
56. 4:54 : Mt 17:22