1Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard about him. They had heard that he was gaining and baptising more disciples than John.2But in fact Jesus was not baptising. His disciples were.3So Jesus left Judea and went back again to Galilee.4Jesus had to go through Samaria.5He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar. It was near the piece of land Jacob had given his son Joseph.6Jacob’s well was there. Jesus was tired from the journey. So he sat down by the well. It was about noon.7A woman from Samaria came to get some water. Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’8His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.9The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew. I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ She said this because Jews don’t have anything to do with Samaritans.10Jesus answered her, ‘You do not know what God’s gift is. And you do not know who is asking you for a drink. If you did, you would have asked him. He would have given you living water.’11‘Sir’, the woman said, ‘you don’t have anything to get water with. The well is deep. Where can you get this living water?12Our father Jacob gave us the well. He drank from it himself. So did his sons and his livestock. Are you more important than he is?’13Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.14But anyone who drinks the water I give them will never be thirsty. In fact, the water I give them will become a spring of water in them. It will flow up into eternal life.’15The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water. Then I will never be thirsty. And I won’t have to keep coming here to get water.’16He told her, ‘Go. Get your husband and come back.’17‘I have no husband,’ she replied. Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband.18The fact is, you have had five husbands. And the man you live with now is not your husband. What you have just said is very true.’19‘Sir’, the woman said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet.20Our people have always worshipped on this mountain. But you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.’21Jesus said, ‘Woman, believe me. A time is coming when you will not worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.22You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know. Salvation comes from the Jews.23But a new time is coming. In fact, it is already here. True worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth. They are the kind of worshippers the Father is looking for.24God is spirit. His worshippers must worship him in the Spirit and in truth.’25The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah is coming.’ Messiah means Christ. ‘When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’26Then Jesus said, ‘The one you’re talking about is the one speaking to you. I am he.’
The disciples join Jesus again
27Just then Jesus’ disciples returned. They were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, ‘What do you want from her?’ No one asked, ‘Why are you talking with her?’28The woman left her water jar and went back to the town. She said to the people,29‘Come. See a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could this be the Messiah?’30The people came out of the town and made their way towards Jesus.31His disciples were saying to him, ‘Rabbi, eat something!’32But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you know nothing about.’33Then his disciples asked each other, ‘Did someone bring him food?’34Jesus said, ‘My food is to do what my Father sent me to do. My food is to finish his work.35Don’t you have a saying? You say, “It’s still four months until harvest time.” But I tell you, open your eyes! Look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest right now.36Even now the one who gathers the crop is getting paid. They are already harvesting the crop for eternal life. So the one who plants and the one who gathers can now be glad together.37Here is a true saying. “One plants and another gathers.”38I sent you to gather what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work. You have gathered the benefits of their work.’
Many Samaritans believe in Jesus
39Many of the Samaritans from the town of Sychar believed in Jesus. They believed because of what the woman had said about him. She said, ‘He told me everything I’ve ever done.’40Then the Samaritans came to him and tried to get him to stay with them. So he stayed two days.41Because of what he said, many more people became believers.42They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said. We have now heard for ourselves. We know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.’
Jesus heals an official’s son
43After the two days, Jesus left for Galilee.44He himself had pointed out that a prophet is not respected in his own country.45When he arrived in Galilee, the people living there welcomed him. They had seen everything he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast. That was because they had also been there.46Once more, Jesus visited Cana in Galilee. Cana is where he had turned the water into wine. A royal official was there. His son was ill in bed at Capernaum.47The official heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea. So he went to Jesus and begged him to come and heal his son. The boy was close to death.48Jesus told him, ‘You people will never believe unless you see signs and wonders.’49The royal official said, ‘Sir, come down before my child dies.’50‘Go’, Jesus replied. ‘Your son will live.’ The man believed what Jesus said, and so he left.51While he was still on his way home, his slaves met him. They gave him the news that his boy was living.52He asked what time his son got better. They said to him, ‘Yesterday, at one o’clock in the afternoon, the fever left him.’53Then the father realised what had happened. That was the exact time Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he and his whole family became believers.54This was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
John 4
English Standard Version
Jesus and the Woman of Samaria
1Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (Joh 3:22; Joh 3:26)2(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples),3he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. (Joh 2:11)4And he had to pass through Samaria. (Lu 13:33)5So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. (Ge 33:19; Ge 48:22; Jos 24:32; Joh 4:12)6Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.[1] (Mt 4:2; Mt 8:24; Mt 21:18; Joh 19:28)7A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (Joh 4:6)8(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)9The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) (Ezr 4:3; Ezr 4:10; Mt 10:5; Lu 9:53; Joh 8:48)10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (Jer 2:13; Jer 17:13; Joh 7:38)11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?12Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” (Joh 4:5; Joh 8:53)13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.[2] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (Isa 49:10; Joh 6:35; Joh 6:51; Joh 6:58; Joh 7:37; Joh 7:38; Re 7:16)15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” (Joh 6:34)16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” (Joh 16:8)17The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;18for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”19The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. (Mt 21:11; Lu 7:16; Lu 7:39; Joh 6:14; Joh 9:17)20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” (Ge 12:6; Ge 33:18; Ge 33:20; De 11:29; De 12:5; De 27:12; Jos 8:33; Jud 9:7; Joh 11:48)21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. (Zep 2:11; Mal 1:11; Joh 2:4; Joh 4:23; Joh 5:25; Joh 5:28; Joh 16:2; Joh 16:25; Joh 16:32; 1Ti 2:8)22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. (2Ki 17:28; Ps 147:19; Isa 2:3; Mt 2:4; Ac 13:23; Ac 17:23; Ro 3:1; Ro 9:4; Ro 11:26)23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. (Ps 145:18; Joh 1:17; Joh 4:21; Joh 6:44; Ro 8:15; Eph 2:18; Eph 6:18; Php 3:3)24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” (De 18:18; Joh 1:41; Joh 4:29)26Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” (Joh 9:35)27Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” (Joh 4:8)28So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people,29“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” (Joh 4:17; Joh 4:25)30They went out of the town and were coming to him.31Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” (Joh 1:38)32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”33So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” (Joh 3:4; Joh 4:11; Joh 4:15; Joh 6:34; Joh 6:52)34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. (Job 23:12; Joh 5:30; Joh 5:36; Joh 6:38; Joh 14:31; Joh 17:4)35Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. (Mt 9:37; Lu 10:2; Joh 4:25; Joh 4:30)36Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. (Isa 9:3; Am 9:13; Mt 13:37; Mr 4:14; Joh 4:38)37For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ (Job 31:8)38I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” (Jos 24:13; Ac 8:5; Ac 8:25)39Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” (Joh 4:5; Joh 4:8; Joh 4:29; Joh 17:20)40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.41And many more believed because of his word. (Joh 8:30)42They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” (Joh 1:29; Joh 3:17; Joh 12:47; 1Ti 4:10; 1Jo 4:14; 1Jo 5:20)43After the two days he departed for Galilee. (Joh 4:40)44(For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) (Mt 13:57)45So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. (Joh 2:23; Joh 3:2; Joh 4:20)
Jesus Heals an Official’s Son
46So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. (Joh 2:1; Joh 2:9)47When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. (Joh 4:3; Joh 4:54)48So Jesus said to him, “Unless you[3] see signs and wonders you will not believe.” (Joh 2:18; Joh 6:30; Joh 20:29)49The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” (Mr 5:35; Lu 8:49; Joh 11:21; Joh 11:32)50Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.51As he was going down, his servants[4] met him and told him that his son was recovering.52So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour[5] the fever left him.”53The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. (Ac 11:14; Ac 16:34; Ac 18:8)54This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. (Joh 2:11; Joh 4:45)