Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

4 When Jesus^[a] learned that the Pharisees^(A) had heard he was making^(B) and baptizing more disciples than John^{(C) 2} (though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), ³ he left Judea^(D) and went again to Galilee.^{(E) 4} He had to travel through Samaria;^{(F) 5} so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property^[b] that Jacob^(G) had given his son Joseph.^{(H) 6} Jacob’s well^(I) was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.^[c]

⁷ A woman of Samaria came to draw water.^(J)

“Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, ⁸ because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.

⁹ “How is it that you, a Jew,^(K) ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan^(L) woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with^[d] Samaritans.^[e]

¹⁰ Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God,^(M) and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”^(N)

¹¹ “Sir,”^(O) 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,^(P) 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.^(Q) In fact, the water I will give him will become a well^[f](R) of water springing up in him for eternal life.”^(S)

¹⁵ “Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that 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 ancestors worshiped on this mountain,^(T) but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”^(U)

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 worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.^{(V) 23} But an hour is coming, and is now here,^(W) when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.^[g] Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit,^(X) and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”^(Y)

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

²⁶ Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”^(AB)

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 people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ^{(AC) 30} They left the town and made their way to him.^(AD)

³¹ In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi,^(AE) 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^(AF) who sent me^(AG) and to finish his work,”^(AH) Jesus told them. ³⁵ “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open^[h] your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready^[i] for harvest. ³⁶ The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life,^(AI) so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. ³⁷ For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’^{(AJ) 38} I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from^[j] their labor.”

The Savior of the World

³⁹ Now many Samaritans^(AK) from that town believed in him because of what the woman said^[k] when she testified,^(AL) “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him,^(AM) they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ Many more believed because of what he said.^{[l] 42} And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior^(AN) of the world.”^[m]

The Deceitful Heart

⁶ Then he said to me, “It is done!^(A) I am the Alpha and the Omega,^(B) the beginning and the end.^(C) I will freely give to the thirsty^(D) from the spring of the water of life.^(E)

The Source of Life

22 Then he showed me the river^[a] of the water of life,^(A) clear as crystal,^(B) flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb^{(C) 2} down the middle of the city’s main street. The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month.^(D) The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations,^{(E) 3} and there will no longer be any curse.^(F) The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him. ⁴ They will see his face,^(G) and his name will be on their foreheads.^{(H) 5} Night will be no more;^(I) people will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light,^(J) and they will reign forever and ever.