John 4:6-34
Holman Christian Standard Bible
6 Jacob’s well(A) was there, and Jesus, worn out from His journey, sat down at the well. It was about six in the evening.[a]
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water.(B)
“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,(C) ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan(D) woman?” she asked Him. For Jews do not associate with[b] Samaritans.[c]
10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God,(E) and who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would ask Him, and He would give you living water.”(F)
11 “Sir,”(G) 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,(H) 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!(I) In fact, the water I will give him will become a well[d](J) of water springing up within him for eternal life.”(K)
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,[e](L) yet you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”(M)
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[f] worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.(N) 23 But an hour is coming, and is now here,(O) 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,(P) and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”(Q)
25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah[g](R) is coming” (who is called Christ(S)). “When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”
26 “I am He,”(T) 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?”(U) 30 They left the town and made their way to Him.(V)
31 In the meantime the disciples kept urging Him, “Rabbi,(W) 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(X) who sent Me(Y) and to finish His work,”(Z) Jesus told them.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- John 4:6 Lit the sixth hour; see note at Jn 1:39; an alt. time reckoning would be noon
- John 4:9 Or do not share vessels with
- John 4:9 Other mss omit For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
- John 4:14 Or spring
- John 4:20 Mount Gerizim, where there had been a Samaritan temple that rivaled Jerusalem’s
- John 4:22 Samaritans is implied since the Gk verb and pronoun are pl.
- 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.
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