John 4
Holman Christian Standard Bible
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
4 When Jesus[a] knew that the Pharisees(A) 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 six in the evening.[c]
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water.(J)
“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,(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—ever!(Q) In fact, the water I will give him will become a well[f](R) of water springing up within him for eternal life.”(S)
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,[g](T) yet 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[h] 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 truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. 24 God is spirit,(X) and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”(Y)
25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah[i](Z) is coming” (who is called Christ(AA)). “When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”
26 “I am He,”(AB) 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?”(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, then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open[j] your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ready[k] for harvest. 36 The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life,(AI) so 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[l] their labor.”
The Savior of the World
39 Now many Samaritans(AK) from that town believed in Him because of what the woman said[m] when she testified,(AL) “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 Therefore, 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.[n] 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(AN) of the world.”[o]
A Galilean Welcome
43 After two days He left there for Galilee.(AO) 44 Jesus Himself testified(AP) that a prophet has no honor in his own country.(AQ) 45 When(AR) they entered Galilee, the Galileans(AS) welcomed Him because they had seen everything He did in Jerusalem(AT) during the festival.(AU) For they also had gone to the festival.
The Second Sign: Healing an Official’s Son
46 Then He went again to Cana(AV) of Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum.(AW) 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea(AX) into Galilee, he went to Him and pleaded with Him to come down and heal his son, for he was about to die.
48 Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders,(AY) you will not believe.”(AZ)
49 “Sir,”(BA) the official said to Him, “come down before my boy dies!”
50 “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what[p] Jesus said to him and departed.
51 While he was still going down, his slaves met him saying that his boy was alive. 52 He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at seven in the morning[q] the fever left him,” they answered. 53 The father(BB) realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” Then he himself believed, along with his whole household.
54 This, therefore, was the second sign(BC) Jesus performed after He came from Judea to Galilee.(BD)
Footnotes
- John 4:1 Other mss read the Lord
- John 4:5 Lit piece of land
- 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.
- John 4:35 Lit Raise
- John 4:35 Lit white
- John 4:38 Lit you have entered into
- John 4:39 Lit because of the woman’s word
- John 4:41 Lit because of His word
- John 4:42 Other mss add the Messiah
- John 4:50 Lit the word
- John 4:52 Or seven in the evening; lit at the seventh hour; see note at Jn 1:39; an alt time reckoning would be at one in the afternoon
John 4
Young's Literal Translation
4 When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees heard that Jesus more disciples doth make and baptize than John,
2 (though indeed Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples,)
3 he left Judea and went away again to Galilee,
4 and it was behoving him to go through Samaria.
5 He cometh, therefore, to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near to the place that Jacob gave to Joseph his son;
6 and there was there a well of Jacob. Jesus therefore having been weary from the journeying, was sitting thus on the well; it was as it were the sixth hour;
7 there cometh a woman out of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith to her, `Give me to drink;'
8 for his disciples were gone away to the city, that they may buy victuals;
9 the Samaritan woman therefore saith to him, `How dost thou, being a Jew, ask drink from me, being a Samaritan woman?' for Jews have no dealing with Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said to her, `If thou hadst known the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked him, and he would have given thee living water.'
11 The woman saith to him, `Sir, thou hast not even a vessel to draw with, and the well is deep; whence, then, hast thou the living water?
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who did give us the well, and himself out of it did drink, and his sons, and his cattle?'
13 Jesus answered and said to her, `Every one who is drinking of this water shall thirst again;
14 but whoever may drink of the water that I will give him, may not thirst -- to the age; and the water that I will give him shall become in him a well of water, springing up to life age-during.'
15 The woman saith unto him, `Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come hither to draw.'
16 Jesus saith to her, `Go, call thy husband, and come hither;'
17 the woman answered and said, `I have not a husband.' Jesus saith to her, `Well didst thou say -- A husband I have not;
18 for five husbands thou hast had, and, now, he whom thou hast is not thy husband; this hast thou said truly.'
19 The woman saith to him, `Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet;
20 our fathers in this mountain did worship, and ye -- ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where it behoveth to worship.'
21 Jesus saith to her, `Woman, believe me, that there doth come an hour, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father;
22 ye worship what ye have not known; we worship what we have known, because the salvation is of the Jews;
23 but, there cometh an hour, and it now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father also doth seek such to worship him;
24 God [is] a Spirit, and those worshipping Him, in spirit and truth it doth behove to worship.'
25 The woman saith to him, `I have known that Messiah doth come, who is called Christ, when that one may come, he will tell us all things;'
26 Jesus saith to her, `I am [he], who am speaking to thee.'
27 And upon this came his disciples, and were wondering that with a woman he was speaking, no one, however, said, `What seekest thou?' or `Why speakest thou with her?'
28 The woman then left her water-jug, and went away to the city, and saith to the men,
29 `Come, see a man, who told me all things -- as many as I did; is this the Christ?'
30 They went forth therefore out of the city, and were coming unto him.
31 And in the meanwhile his disciples were asking him, saying, `Rabbi, eat;'
32 and he said to them, `I have food to eat that ye have not known.'
33 The disciples then said one to another, `Did any one bring him anything to eat?'
34 Jesus saith to them, `My food is, that I may do the will of Him who sent me, and may finish His work;
35 do not say that it is yet four months, and the harvest cometh; lo, I say to you, Lift up your eyes, and see the fields, that they are white unto harvest already.
36 `And he who is reaping doth receive a reward, and doth gather fruit to life age-during, that both he who is sowing and he who is reaping may rejoice together;
37 for in this the saying is the true one, that one is the sower and another the reaper.
38 I sent you to reap that on which ye have not laboured; others laboured, and ye into their labour have entered.
39 And from that city many believed in him, of the Samaritans, because of the word of the woman testifying, -- `He told me all things -- as many as I did.'
40 When, then, the Samaritans came unto him, they were asking him to remain with them, and he remained there two days;
41 and many more did believe because of his word,
42 and said to the woman -- `No more because of thy speaking do we believe; for we ourselves have heard and known that this is truly the Saviour of the world -- the Christ.'
43 And after the two days he went forth thence, and went away to Galilee,
44 for Jesus himself testified that a prophet in his own country shall not have honour;
45 when then, he came to Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all things that he did in Jerusalem in the feast -- for they also went to the feast.
46 Jesus came, therefore, again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine, and there was a certain courtier, whose son was ailing in Capernaum,
47 he, having heard that Jesus is come out of Judea to Galilee, went away unto him, and was asking him that he may come down and may heal his son, for he was about to die.
48 Jesus then said unto him, `If signs and wonders ye may not see, ye will not believe.'
49 The courtier saith unto him, `Sir, come down before my child die;'
50 Jesus saith to him, `Be going on; thy son doth live.' And the man believed the word that Jesus said to him, and was going on,
51 and he now going down, his servants met him, and told, saying -- `Thy child doth live;'
52 he inquired then of them the hour in which he became better, and they said to him -- `Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him;'
53 then the father knew that [it was] in that hour in which Jesus said to him -- `Thy son doth live,' and he himself believed, and his whole house;
54 this again a second sign did Jesus, having come out of Judea to Galilee.
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