Jesus Goes to Galilee

4 So when the Lord learned that the Pharisees had been told that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John ² (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), ³ He left Judea and returned again to Galilee. ⁴ Now ^[a]He had to go through ^[b]Samaria. ⁵ 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 by the well. It was then about the sixth hour (noon).

The Samaritan Woman

⁷ Then a woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink”— ⁸ For His disciples had gone off into the city to buy food— ⁹ The Samaritan woman asked Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me, a ^[c]Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (For Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew [about] God’s gift [of eternal life], and who it is who says, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him [instead], and He would have given you living water (eternal life).” ¹¹ She said to Him, “Sir, ^[d]You have nothing to draw with [no bucket and rope] and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? ¹² Are You greater than our father ^[e]Jacob, who gave us the well, and who used to drink from it himself, and his sons and his cattle also?” ¹³ Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. ¹⁴ But whoever drinks the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. But the water that I give him will become in him a spring of water [satisfying his thirst for God] welling up [continually flowing, bubbling within him] to eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not get thirsty nor [have to continually] come all the way here to draw.” ¹⁶ At this, Jesus said, “Go, call your husband and come back.” ¹⁷ The woman answered, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I do not have a husband’; ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the man you are now living with is not your ^[f]husband. You have said this truthfully.” ¹⁹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, I see that You are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one ought to worship is in Jerusalem [at the temple].” ²¹ Jesus replied, “Woman, believe Me, a time is coming [when God’s kingdom comes] when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You [Samaritans] do not know what you worship; we [Jews] do know what we worship, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But a time is coming and is already here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit [from the heart, the inner self] and in truth; for the Father seeks such people to be His worshipers. ²⁴ God is spirit [the Source of life, yet invisible to mankind], and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ—the Anointed); when that One comes, He will tell us everything [we need to know].” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you, am He (the Messiah).”

²⁷ Just then His disciples came, and they were surprised to find Him talking with a woman. However, no one said, “What are You asking about?” or, “Why are You talking to her?” ²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar, and went into the city and began telling the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done! Can this be the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed)?” ³⁰ So the people left the city and were coming to Him.