The Woman at the Well

⁴Now He had to pass through Samaria.

⁵So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

⁶Since Jacob’s well was there, Jesus, weary from His journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”

⁸(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

⁹“You are a Jew,” said the woman. “How can You ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

¹⁰Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

¹¹“Sir,” the woman replied, “You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then will You get this living water?

¹²Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock?”

¹³Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.

¹⁴But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”

¹⁵The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷“I have no husband,” the woman replied. Jesus said to her, “You are correct to say that you have no husband.

¹⁸In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. You have spoken truthfully.”

¹⁹“Sir,” the woman said, “I see that You are a prophet.

²⁰Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹“Believe Me, woman,” Jesus replied, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

²³But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.

²⁴God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

²⁵The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”

²⁶Jesus answered, “I who speak to you am He.”

²⁷Just then His disciples returned and were surprised that He was speaking with a woman. But no one asked Him, “What do You want from her?” or “Why are You talking with her?”

²⁸Then the woman left her water jar, went back into the town, and said to the people,

²⁹“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

³⁰So they left the town and made their way toward Jesus.