John 4 - New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John^(A)— ² although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³ So he left Judea^(B) and went back once more to Galilee.

⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria.^{(C) 5} So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.^{(D) 6} Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”^{(E) 8} (His disciples had gone into the town^(F) to buy food.)

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan^(G) woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^[a])

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”^(H)

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well^(I) and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.^(J) Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water^(K) welling up to eternal life.”^(L)

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty^(M) and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.^{(N) 20} Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,^(O) but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”^(P)

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming^(Q) when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.^{(R) 22} You Samaritans worship what you do not know;^(S) we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.^{(T) 23} Yet a time is coming and has now come^(U) when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit^(V) and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit,^(W) and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

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

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”^(Y)

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

²⁷ Just then his disciples returned^(Z) and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.^(AA) Could this be the Messiah?”^{(AB) 30} They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi,^(AC) eat something.”

³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat^(AD) that you know nothing about.”

³³ Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will^(AE) of him who sent me and to finish his work.^{(AF) 35} Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.^{(AG) 36} Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests^(AH) a crop for eternal life,^(AI) so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’^(AJ) is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Many Samaritans Believe

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town^(AK) believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”^{(AL) 40} So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers.

⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”^(AM)

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son

⁴³ After the two days^(AN) he left for Galilee. ⁴⁴ (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)^{(AO) 45} When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival,^(AP) for they also had been there.

⁴⁶ Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.^(AQ) And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,^(AR) he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

⁴⁸ “Unless you people see signs and wonders,”^(AS) Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

⁴⁹ The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

⁵⁰ “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. ⁵¹ While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. ⁵² When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

⁵³ Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household^(AT) believed.

⁵⁴ This was the second sign^(AU) Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

Footnotes

1. John 4:9 Or do not use dishes Samaritans have used

Cross references

1. John 4:1 : Jn 3:22, 26
2. John 4:3 : Jn 3:22
3. John 4:4 : S Mt 10:5
4. John 4:5 : Ge 33:19; Jos 24:32
5. John 4:7 : Ge 24:17; 1Ki 17:10
6. John 4:8 : ver 5, 39
7. John 4:9 : S Mt 10:5
8. John 4:10 : Isa 44:3; 55:1; Jer 2:13; 17:13; Zec 14:8; Jn 7:37, 38; Rev 7:17; 21:6; 22:1, 17
9. John 4:12 : ver 6
10. John 4:14 : Jn 6:35
11. John 4:14 : Isa 12:3; 58:11; Jn 7:38
12. John 4:14 : S Mt 25:46
13. John 4:15 : Jn 6:34
14. John 4:19 : S Mt 21:11
15. John 4:20 : Dt 11:29; Jos 8:33
16. John 4:20 : Lk 9:53
17. John 4:21 : Jn 5:28; 16:2
18. John 4:21 : Mal 1:11; 1Ti 2:8
19. John 4:22 : 2Ki 17:28-41
20. John 4:22 : Isa 2:3; Ro 3:1, 2; 9:4, 5; 15:8, 9
21. John 4:23 : Jn 5:25; 16:32
22. John 4:23 : Php 3:3
23. John 4:24 : Php 3:3
24. John 4:25 : Mt 1:16; Jn 1:41
25. John 4:26 : Jn 8:24; 9:35-37
26. John 4:27 : ver 8
27. John 4:29 : ver 17, 18
28. John 4:29 : Mt 12:23; Jn 7:26, 31
29. John 4:31 : S Mt 23:7
30. John 4:32 : Job 23:12; Mt 4:4; Jn 6:27
31. John 4:34 : S Mt 26:39
32. John 4:34 : S Jn 19:30
33. John 4:35 : Mt 9:37; Lk 10:2
34. John 4:36 : Ro 1:13
35. John 4:36 : S Mt 25:46
36. John 4:37 : Job 31:8; Mic 6:15
37. John 4:39 : ver 5
38. John 4:39 : ver 29
39. John 4:42 : S Lk 2:11
40. John 4:43 : ver 40
41. John 4:44 : Mt 13:57; Lk 4:24
42. John 4:45 : Jn 2:23
43. John 4:46 : Jn 2:1-11
44. John 4:47 : ver 3, 54
45. John 4:48 : Da 4:2, 3; S Jn 2:11; Ac 2:43; 14:3; Ro 15:19; 2Co 12:12; Heb 2:4
46. John 4:53 : S Ac 11:14
47. John 4:54 : S ver 48; S Jn 2:11