John 4:4-23

⁴He had to pass through Samaria,

⁵and, on his way, he came to a Samaritan town called Shechem, near the plot of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

⁶Jacob's Spring was there, and Jesus, being tired after his journey, sat down beside the spring, just as he was. It was then about midday.

⁷A woman of Samaria came to draw water; and Jesus said to her — “Give me some to drink,”

⁸For his disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

⁹“How is it,” replied the Samaritan woman, “that you who are a Jew ask for water from a Samaritan woman like me?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans).

¹⁰“If you knew of the gift of God,” replied Jesus, “and who it is that is saying to you ‘Give me some water,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹“You have no bucket, Sir, and the well is deep,” she said; “where did you get that ‘living water?’

¹²Surely you are not greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us the well, and used to drink from it himself, and his sons, and his cattle!”

¹³“All who drink of this water,” replied Jesus, “will be thirsty again;

¹⁴but whoever once drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst any more; but the water that I will give him will become a spring welling up within him — a source of eternal life.”

¹⁵“Give me this water, Sir,” said the woman, “so that I may not be thirsty, nor have to come all the way here to draw water.”

¹⁶“Go and call your husband,” said Jesus, “and then come back.”

¹⁷“I have no husband,” answered the woman. “You are right in saying ‘I have no husband,’” replied Jesus,

¹⁸“For you have had five husbands, and the man with whom you are now living is not your husband; in saying that, you have spoken the truth.”

¹⁹“I see, Sir, that you are a prophet!” exclaimed the woman.

²⁰“It was on this mountain that our ancestors worshipped; and yet you Jews say that the proper place for worship is in Jerusalem.”

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

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

²³But a time is coming, indeed it is already here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father spiritually and truly; for such are the worshippers that the Father desires.