John 4
New American Standard Bible
Jesus Goes to Galilee
4 So then, when (A)the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that [a]He was making and (B)baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although (C)Jesus Himself was not baptizing; rather, His (D)disciples were), 3 He left (E)Judea and went away (F)again to Galilee. 4 And He had to pass through (G)Samaria. 5 So He *came to a city of (H)Samaria called Sychar, near (I)the parcel of land that (J)Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, tired from His journey, was just sitting by the well. It was about [b]the sixth hour.
The Woman of Samaria
7 A woman of Samaria *came to draw water. Jesus *said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His (K)disciples had gone away to (L)the city to buy food. 9 So the (M)Samaritan woman *said to Him, “How is it that You, though You are a Jew, are asking me for a drink, though I am a Samaritan woman?” (For (N)Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus replied to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you (O)living water.” 11 She *said to Him, “[c]Sir, You have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do You get this (P)living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who (Q)gave us the well and drank of it himself, and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him (R)shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to (S)eternal life.”
15 The woman *said to Him, “[d]Sir, (T)give me this water so that I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw water.” 16 He *said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said to Him, “I have no husband.” Jesus *said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this which you have said is true.” 19 The woman *said to Him, “[e]Sir, I perceive that You are (U)a prophet. 20 (V)Our fathers worshiped on (W)this mountain, and yet you Jews say that (X)in Jerusalem is the place where one must worship.” 21 Jesus *said to her, “Believe Me, woman, that [f](Y)a time is coming when you will worship the Father (Z)neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 (AA)You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, because (AB)salvation is from the Jews. 23 But [g](AC)a time is coming, and [h]even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father (AD)in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be [i]His worshipers. 24 God is [j]spirit, and those who worship Him must worship (AE)in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman *said to Him, “I know that (AF)Messiah is coming ((AG)He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” 26 Jesus *said to her, “(AH)I am He, the One speaking to you.”
27 And at this point His (AI)disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What are You seeking?” or, “Why are You speaking with her?” 28 So the woman left her waterpot and went into the city, and *said to the people, 29 “Come, see a Man (AJ)who told me all the things that I have done; (AK)this is not the [k]Christ, is He?” 30 They left the city and were coming to Him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “(AL)Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the (AM)disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” 34 Jesus *said to them, “My food is to (AN)do the will of Him who sent Me, and to (AO)accomplish His work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I tell you, raise your eyes and observe the fields, that they are white (AP)for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving (AQ)wages and is gathering (AR)fruit for (AS)eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this case the saying is true: ‘(AT)One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have [l]come into their labor.”
The Samaritans
39 Now from (AU)that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “(AV)He told me all the things that I have done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to [m]Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of His word; 42 and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One truly is (AW)the Savior of the world.”
43 And after (AX)the two days, He departed from there for Galilee. 44 For Jesus Himself testified that (AY)a prophet has no honor in his own country. 45 So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, only because (AZ)they had seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast.
Healing an Official’s Son
46 Therefore He came again to (BA)Cana of Galilee, (BB)where He had made the water into wine. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at (BC)Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come (BD)from Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and began asking Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. 48 Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see [n](BE)signs and (BF)wonders, you simply will not believe.” 49 The royal official *said to Him, “[o]Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus *said to him, “(BG)Go; your son [p]is alive.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went home. 51 And as he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his [q]son was [r]alive. 52 So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, “Yesterday at the [s]seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son is alive”; and he himself believed, and (BH)his entire household. 54 This is again a (BI)second [t]sign that Jesus performed when He had (BJ)come from Judea into Galilee.
Footnotes
- John 4:1 Lit Jesus
- John 4:6 I.e., noon
- John 4:11 Or Lord
- John 4:15 Or Lord
- John 4:19 Or Lord
- John 4:21 Lit an hour
- John 4:23 Lit an hour
- John 4:23 Lit now is, when
- John 4:23 Lit the ones worshiping Him
- John 4:24 Or Spirit
- John 4:29 I.e., Messiah
- John 4:38 I.e., enjoyed the fruit of their labor
- John 4:40 Lit Him
- John 4:48 I.e., confirming miracles
- John 4:49 Or Lord
- John 4:50 I.e., is well
- John 4:51 Or boy
- John 4:51 I.e., well
- John 4:52 I.e., 1 p.m.
- John 4:54 I.e., confirming miracle
John 4
International Children’s Bible
Jesus and a Samaritan Woman
4 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more followers than John. 2 (But really Jesus himself did not baptize people. His followers did the baptizing.) Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard about him. 3 So he left Judea and went back to Galilee. 4 On the way he had to go through the country of Samaria.
5 In Samaria Jesus came to the town called Sychar. This town is near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. Jesus was tired from his long trip. So he sat down beside the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to the well to get some water. Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” 8 (This happened while Jesus’ followers were in town buying some food.)
9 The woman said, “I am surprised that you ask me for a drink. You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan.” (Jews are not friends with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus said, “You don’t know what God gives. And you don’t know who asked you for a drink. If you knew, you would have asked me, and I would have given you living water.”
11 The woman said, “Sir, where will you get that living water? The well is very deep, and you have nothing to get water with. 12 Are you greater than Jacob, our father? Jacob is the one who gave us this well. He drank from it himself. Also, his sons and flocks drank from this well.”
13 Jesus answered, “Every person who drinks this water will be thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty again. The water I give will become a spring of water flowing inside him. It will give him eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water. Then I will never be thirsty again. And I will not have to come back here to get more water.”
16 Jesus told her, “Go get your husband and come back here.”
17 The woman answered, “But I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You are right to say you have no husband. 18 Really you have had five husbands. But the man you live with now is not your husband. You told the truth.”
19 The woman said, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain. But you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where people must worship.”
21 Jesus said, “Believe me, woman. The time is coming when you will not have to be in Jerusalem or on this mountain to worship the Father. 22 You Samaritans worship what you don’t understand. We Jews understand what we worship. Salvation comes from the Jews. 23 The time is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. That time is now here. And these are the kinds of worshipers the Father wants. 24 God is spirit. Those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that the Messiah is coming.” (Messiah is the One called Christ.) “When the Messiah comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus said, “He is talking to you now. I am he.”
27 Just then his followers came back from town. They were surprised because they saw Jesus talking with a woman. But none of them asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to town. She said to the people, 29 “A man told me everything I have ever done. Come see him. Maybe he is the Christ!” 30 So the people left the town and went to see Jesus.
31 While the woman was away, the followers were begging him, “Teacher, eat something!”
32 But Jesus answered, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 So the followers asked themselves, “Did somebody already bring Jesus some food?”
34 Jesus said, “My food is to do what the One who sent me wants me to do. My food is to finish the work that he gave me to do. 35 You say, ‘Four more months to wait before we gather the grain.’ But I tell you, open your eyes. Look at the fields that are ready for harvesting now. 36 Even now, the one who harvests the crop is being paid. He is gathering crops for eternal life. So now the one who plants can be happy along with the one who harvests. 37 It is true when we say, ‘One person plants, but another harvests the crop.’ 38 I sent you to harvest a crop that you did not work for. Others did the work, and you get the profit from their work.”[b]
39 Many of the Samaritans in that town believed in Jesus. They believed because of what the woman said: “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 The Samaritans came to Jesus and begged him to stay with them. So he stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of the things he said.
42 They said to the woman, “First we believed in Jesus because of what you told us. But now we believe because we heard him ourselves. We know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
Jesus Heals an Officer’s Son
43 Two days later, Jesus left and went to Galilee. 44 (Jesus had said before that a prophet is not respected in his own country.) 45 When Jesus arrived in Galilee, the people there welcomed him. They had seen all the things he did at the Passover Feast in Jerusalem. They had been at the Passover Feast, too.
46 Jesus went to visit Cana in Galilee again. This is where Jesus had changed the water into wine. One of the king’s important officers lived in the city of Capernaum. This man’s son was sick. 47 The man heard that Jesus had come from Judea and was now in Galilee. He went to Jesus and begged him to come to Capernaum and heal his son. His son was almost dead. 48 Jesus said to him, “You people must see signs and miracles before you will believe in me.”
49 The officer said, “Sir, come before my child dies.”
50 Jesus answered, “Go. Your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus told him and went home. 51 On the way the man’s servants came and met him. They told him, “Your son is well.”
52 The man asked, “What time did my son begin to get well?”
They answered, “It was about one o’clock yesterday when the fever left him.”
53 The father knew that one o’clock was the exact time that Jesus had said, “Your son will live.” So the man and all the people of his house believed in Jesus.
54 That was the second miracle that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
