John 4-5

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

4 Now when the Lord knew (learned, became aware) that the Pharisees had been told that Jesus was winning and baptizing more disciples than John—

² Though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples—

³ He left Judea and returned to Galilee.

⁴ It was necessary for Him to go through Samaria.

⁵ And in doing so, He arrived at a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the tract of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

⁶ And Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, tired as He was from His journey, sat down [to rest] by the well. It was then about the sixth hour (about noon).

⁷ Presently, when a woman of Samaria came along to draw water, Jesus said to her, Give Me a drink—

⁸ For His disciples had gone off into the town to buy food—

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to Him, How is it that ^[a]You, being a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan [and a] woman, for a drink?—For the Jews have nothing to do with the Samaritans—

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, If you had only known and had recognized God’s gift and Who this is that is saying to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him [instead] and He would have given you living water.

¹¹ She said to Him, Sir, You have nothing to draw with [no drawing bucket] and the well is deep; how then can You provide living water? [Where do You get Your living water?]

¹² Are You greater than and superior to our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well and who used to drink from it himself, and his sons and his cattle also?

¹³ Jesus answered her, All who drink of this water will be thirsty again.

¹⁴ But whoever takes a drink of the water that I will give him shall never, no never, be thirsty any more. But the water that I will give him shall become a spring of water welling up (flowing, bubbling) [continually] within him unto (into, for) eternal life.

¹⁵ The woman said to Him, Sir, give me this water, so that I may never get thirsty nor have to come [continually all the way] here to draw.

¹⁶ At this, Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come back here.

¹⁷ The woman answered, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have spoken truly in saying, I have no husband.

¹⁸ For you have had five husbands, and the man you are now living with is not your husband. In this you have spoken truly.

¹⁹ The woman said to Him, Sir, I see and understand that You are a prophet.

²⁰ Our forefathers worshiped on this mountain, but you [Jews] say that Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary and proper to worship.

²¹ Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither [merely] in this mountain nor [merely] in Jerusalem.

²² You [Samaritans] do not know what you are worshiping [you worship what you do not comprehend]. We do know what we are worshiping [we worship what we have knowledge of and understand], for [after all] salvation comes from [among] the Jews.

²³ A time will come, however, indeed it is already here, when the true (genuine) worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth (reality); for the Father is seeking just such people as these as His worshipers.

²⁴ God is a Spirit (a spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality).

²⁵ The woman said to Him, I know that Messiah is coming, He Who is called the Christ (the Anointed One); and when He arrives, He will tell us everything we need to know and make it clear to us.

²⁶ Jesus said to her, I Who now speak with you am He.

²⁷ Just then His disciples came and they wondered (were surprised, astonished) to find Him talking with a woman [a married woman]. However, not one of them asked Him, What are You inquiring about? or What do You want? or, Why do You speak with her?

²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar and went away to the town. And she began telling the people,

²⁹ Come, see a Man Who has told me everything that I ever did! Can this be [is not this] the Christ? [Must not this be the Messiah, the Anointed One?]

³⁰ So the people left the town and set out to go to Him.

³¹ Meanwhile, the disciples urged Him saying, Rabbi, eat something.

³² But He assured them, I have food (nourishment) to eat of which you know nothing and have no idea.

³³ So the disciples said one to another, Has someone brought Him something to eat?

³⁴ Jesus said to them, My food (nourishment) is to do the will (pleasure) of Him Who sent Me and to accomplish and completely finish His work.

³⁵ Do you not say, It is still four months until harvest time comes? Look! I tell you, raise your eyes and observe the fields and see how they are already white for harvesting.

³⁶ Already the reaper is getting his wages [he who does the cutting now has his reward], for he is gathering fruit (crop) unto life eternal, so that he who does the planting and he who does the reaping may rejoice together.

³⁷ For in this the saying holds true, One sows and another reaps.

³⁸ I sent you to reap a crop for which you have not toiled. Other men have labored and you have stepped in to reap the results of their work.

³⁹ Now numerous Samaritans from that town believed in and trusted in Him because of what the woman said when she declared and testified, He told me everything that I ever did.

⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans arrived, they asked Him to remain with them, and He did stay there two days.

⁴¹ Then many more believed in and adhered to and relied on Him because of His personal message [what He Himself said].

⁴² And they told the woman, Now we no longer believe (trust, have faith) just because of what you said; for we have heard Him ourselves [personally], and we know that He truly is the Savior of the world, the Christ.

⁴³ But after these two days Jesus went on from there into Galilee—

⁴⁴ Although He Himself declared that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

⁴⁵ However, when He came into Galilee, the Galileans also welcomed Him and took Him to their hearts eagerly, for they had seen everything that He did in Jerusalem during the Feast; for they too had attended the Feast.

⁴⁶ So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son was lying ill in Capernaum.

⁴⁷ Having heard that Jesus had come back from Judea into Galilee, he went away to meet Him and began to beg Him to come down and cure his son, for he was lying at the point of death.

⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to him, Unless you see signs and miracles happen, you [people] never will believe (trust, have faith) at all.

⁴⁹ The king’s officer pleaded with Him, Sir, do come down at once before my little child is dead!

⁵⁰ Jesus answered him, Go in peace; your son will live! And the man put his trust in what Jesus said and started home.

⁵¹ But even as he was on the road going down, his servants met him and reported, saying, Your son lives!

⁵² So he asked them at what time he had begun to get better. They said, Yesterday during the seventh hour (about one o’clock in the afternoon) the fever left him.

⁵³ Then the father knew that it was at that very hour when Jesus had said to him, Your son will live. And he and his entire household believed (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on Jesus).

⁵⁴ This is the second sign (wonderwork, miracle) that Jesus performed after He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

5 Later on there was a Jewish festival (feast) for which Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

² Now there is in Jerusalem a pool near the Sheep Gate. This pool in the Hebrew is called Bethesda, having five porches (alcoves, colonnades, doorways).

³ In these lay a great number of sick folk—some blind, some crippled, and some paralyzed (shriveled up)—^[b]waiting for the bubbling up of the water.

⁴ For an angel of the Lord went down at appointed seasons into the pool and moved and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was cured of whatever disease with which he was afflicted.

⁵ There was a certain man there who had suffered with a deep-seated and lingering disorder for thirty-eight years.

⁶ When Jesus noticed him lying there [helpless], knowing that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, Do you want to become well? [Are you really in earnest about getting well?]

⁷ The invalid answered, Sir, I have nobody when the water is moving to put me into the pool; but while I am trying to come [into it] myself, somebody else steps down ahead of me.

⁸ Jesus said to him, Get up! Pick up your bed (sleeping pad) and walk!

⁹ Instantly the man became well and recovered his strength and picked up his bed and walked. But that happened on the Sabbath.

¹⁰ So the Jews kept saying to the man who had been healed, It is the Sabbath, and you have no right to pick up your bed [it is not lawful].

¹¹ He answered them, The ^[c]Man Who healed me and gave me back my strength, He Himself said to me, Pick up your bed and walk!

¹² They asked him, Who is the Man Who told you, Pick up your bed and walk?

¹³ Now the invalid who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had quietly gone away [had passed on unnoticed], since there was a crowd in the place.

¹⁴ Afterward, when Jesus found him in the temple, He said to him, See, you are well! Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.

¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus Who had made him well.

¹⁶ For this reason the Jews began to persecute (annoy, torment) Jesus ^[d]and sought to kill Him, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.

¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, My Father has worked [even] until now, [He has never ceased working; He is still working] and I, too, must be at [divine] work.

¹⁸ This made the Jews more determined than ever to kill Him [to do away with Him]; because He not only was breaking (weakening, violating) the Sabbath, but He actually was speaking of God as being [in a special sense] His own Father, making Himself equal [putting Himself on a level] with God.

¹⁹ So Jesus answered them by saying, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the Son is able to do nothing of Himself (of His own accord); but He is able to do only what He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does is what the Son does in the same way [in His turn].

²⁰ The Father dearly loves the Son and discloses to (shows) Him everything that He Himself does. And He will disclose to Him (let Him see) greater things yet than these, so that you may marvel and be full of wonder and astonishment.

²¹ Just as the Father raises up the dead and gives them life [makes them live on], even so the Son also gives life to whomever He wills and is pleased to give it.

²² Even the Father judges no one, for He has given all judgment (the last judgment and the whole business of judging) entirely into the hands of the Son,

²³ So that all men may give honor (reverence, homage) to the Son just as they give honor to the Father. [In fact] whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, Who has sent Him.

²⁴ I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the person whose ears are open to My words [who listens to My message] and believes and trusts in and clings to and relies on Him Who sent Me has (possesses now) eternal life. And he does not come into judgment [does not incur sentence of judgment, will not come under condemnation], but he has already passed over out of death into life.

²⁵ Believe Me when I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the time is coming and is here now when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear it shall live.

²⁶ For even as the Father has life in Himself and is self-existent, so He has given to the Son to have life in Himself and be self-existent.

²⁷ And He has given Him authority and granted Him power to execute (exercise, practice) judgment because He is ^[e]a Son of man [very man].

²⁸ Do not be surprised and wonder at this, for the time is coming when all those who are in the tombs shall hear His voice,

²⁹ And they shall come out—those who have practiced doing good [will come out] to the resurrection of [new] life, and those who have done evil will be raised for judgment [raised to meet their sentence].^(A)

³⁰ I am able to do nothing from Myself [independently, of My own accord—but only as I am taught by God and as I get His orders]. Even as I hear, I judge [I decide as I am bidden to decide. As the voice comes to Me, so I give a decision], and My judgment is right (just, righteous), because I do not seek or consult My own will [I have no desire to do what is pleasing to Myself, My own aim, My own purpose] but only the will and pleasure of the Father Who sent Me.

³¹ If I alone testify in My behalf, My testimony is not valid and cannot be worth anything.

³² There is Another Who testifies concerning Me, and I know and am certain that His evidence on My behalf is true and valid.

³³ You yourselves have sent [an inquiry] to John and he has been a witness to the truth.

³⁴ But I do not receive [a mere] human witness [the evidence which I accept on My behalf is not from man]; but I simply mention all these things in order that you may be saved (made and kept safe and sound).

³⁵ John was the lamp that kept on burning and shining [to show you the way], and you were willing for a while to delight (sun) yourselves in his light.

³⁶ But I have as My witness something greater (weightier, higher, better) than that of John; for the works that the Father has appointed Me to accomplish and finish, the very same works that I am now doing, are a witness and proof that the Father has sent Me.

³⁷ And the Father Who sent Me has Himself testified concerning Me. Not one of you has ever given ear to His voice or seen His form (His face—what He is like). [You have always been deaf to His voice and blind to the vision of Him.]

³⁸ And you have not His word (His thought) living in your hearts, because you do not believe and adhere to and trust in and rely on Him Whom He has sent. [That is why you do not keep His message living in you, because you do not believe in the Messenger Whom He has sent.]

³⁹ You search and investigate and pore over the Scriptures diligently, because you suppose and trust that you have eternal life through them. And these [very Scriptures] testify about Me!

⁴⁰ And still you are not willing [but refuse] to come to Me, so that you might have life.

⁴¹ I receive not glory from men [I crave no human honor, I look for no mortal fame],

⁴² But I know you and recognize and understand that you have not the love of God in you.

⁴³ I have come in My Father’s name and with His power, and you do not receive Me [your hearts are not open to Me, you give Me no welcome]; but if another comes in his own name and his own power and with no other authority but himself, you will receive him and give him your approval.

⁴⁴ How is it possible for you to believe [how can you learn to believe], you who [are content to seek and] receive praise and honor and glory from one another, and yet do not seek the praise and honor and glory which come from Him Who alone is God?

⁴⁵ Put out of your minds the thought and do not suppose [as some of you are supposing] that I will accuse you before the Father. There is one who accuses you—it is Moses, the very one on whom you have built your hopes [in whom you trust].

⁴⁶ For if you believed and relied on Moses, you would believe and rely on Me, for he wrote about Me [personally].

⁴⁷ But if you do not believe and trust his writings, how then will you believe and trust My teachings? [How shall you cleave to and rely on My words?]