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,[a](A) yet you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”(B)

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[b] worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.(C) 23 But an hour is coming, and is now here,(D) 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,(E) and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”(F)

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

26 “I am He,”(I) 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?”(J) 30 They left the town and made their way to Him.(K)

31 In the meantime the disciples kept urging Him, “Rabbi,(L) 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(M) who sent Me(N) and to finish His work,”(O) 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[d] your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ready[e] for harvest. 36 The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life,(P) so the sower and reaper can rejoice together. 37 For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’(Q) 38 I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from[f] their labor.”

The Savior of the World

39 Now many Samaritans(R) from that town believed in Him because of what the woman said[g] when she testified,(S) “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 Therefore, when the Samaritans came to Him,(T) they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of what He said.[h] 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(U) of the world.”[i]

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Footnotes

  1. John 4:20 Mount Gerizim, where there had been a Samaritan temple that rivaled Jerusalem’s
  2. John 4:22 Samaritans is implied since the Gk verb and pronoun are pl.
  3. 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.
  4. John 4:35 Lit Raise
  5. John 4:35 Lit white
  6. John 4:38 Lit you have entered into
  7. John 4:39 Lit because of the woman’s word
  8. John 4:41 Lit because of His word
  9. John 4:42 Other mss add the Messiah

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