Pleasures Are Meaningless

2 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure^(A) to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. ² “Laughter,”^(B) I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” ³ I tried cheering myself with wine,^(C) and embracing folly^(D)—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.

⁴ I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself^(E) and planted vineyards.^{(F) 5} I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. ⁶ I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. ⁷ I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves^(G) who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. ⁸ I amassed silver and gold^(H) for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces.^(I) I acquired male and female singers,^(J) and a harem^[a] as well—the delights of a man’s heart. ⁹ I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem^(K) before me.^(L) In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

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)

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.^(A)

³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am^(A) the bread of life.^(B) Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes^(C) in me will never be thirsty.^(D)

³⁵ The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered^(A) among the Greeks,^(B) and teach the Greeks? ³⁶ What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”^(C)

³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the festival,^(D) Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.^{(E) 38} Whoever believes^(F) in me, as Scripture has said,^(G) rivers of living water^(H) will flow from within them.”^[a](I)