Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

4 When the Lord[fn] realized that the Pharisees were aware that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although [it was] not Jesus who baptized, but His disciples), 3 He left Judea and went away[fn] to Galilee.

4 Now He had to pass through Samaria. 5 So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Since Jacob’s well was there, Jesus, weary from [His] journey, sat down by the well. It was about [the] sixth hour.[fn]

7 [When] 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.)[fn]

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

13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. 14 But 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.”

15 The 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].”

16 Jesus 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. 18 In 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. 20 Our 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. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But 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. 24 God [is] Spirit, and [His] worshipers must worship Him in spirit and [in] truth.”

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

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