Chapter 4

^1 [a]Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John ² (although Jesus himself was not baptizing, just his disciples),^{[b] 3} he left Judea and returned to Galilee.

The Samaritan Woman. ⁴ He had to^[c] pass through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,^[d] near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.^{(A) 6} Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon.

⁷ A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸ His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. ^9 [e]The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”^(B) (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.) ^10 [f]Jesus answered and said to her,^(C) “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ [The woman] said to him, “Sir,^[g] you do not even have a bucket and the well is deep; where then can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?”^{(D) 13} Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”^{(E) 15} The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” ¹⁷ The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ ¹⁸ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”^{(F) 19} The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.^{(G) 20} Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;^[h] but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”^{(H) 21} Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews.^{(I) 23} But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;^[i] and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”^{(J) 25 [j]}The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming,^(K) the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I am he,^[k] the one who is speaking with you.”^(L)

²⁷ At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,^[l] but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸ The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?” ³⁰ They went out of the town and came to him. ³¹ Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” ³³ So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.^{(M) 35} Do you not say, ‘In four months^[m] the harvest will be here’? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.^{(N) 36} The reaper is already^[n] receiving his payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.^{(O) 37} For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’^{(P) 38} I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman^[o] who testified, “He told me everything I have done.” ⁴⁰ When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ Many more began to believe in him because of his word, ⁴² and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”^(Q)

Return to Galilee. ^43 [p]After the two days, he left there for Galilee. ^44 [q](R)For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his native place. ⁴⁵ When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves had gone to the feast.

Second Sign at Cana.^{[r] 46 (S)}Then he returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death. ⁴⁸ Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”^{(T) 49} The royal official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” ⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.^{(U) 51} While he was on his way back, his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live. ⁵² He asked them when he began to recover. They told him, “The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.” ⁵³ The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live,” and he and his whole household came to believe. ⁵⁴ [Now] this was the second sign Jesus did when he came to Galilee from Judea.^(V)