John 4
4
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
1When Jesus#4:1 Other mss read the Lord learned that the Pharisees#Mk 7:3 had heard he was making#Mt 28:19–20 and baptizing more disciples than John#Mk 1:4 2(though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), 3he left Judea#Lk 1:5 and went again to Galilee.#Mt 17:22 4He had to travel through Samaria;#Ac 1:8 5so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property#4:5 Lit piece of land that Jacob#Ps 22:23; Mt 1:2; Lk 1:33 had given his son Joseph.#Gn 30:24; 33:19; 48:22; 49:22 6Jacob’s well#Jms 3:11 was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.#4:6 Lit about the sixth hour
7A woman of Samaria came to draw water.#Gn 24:11–17; 29:2–12
“Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.
9“How is it that you, a Jew,#Jn 11:36; Ac 14:1; Rv 2:9 ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan#Lk 9:52; Ac 1:8 woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with#4:9 Or do not share vessels with Samaritans.#4:9 Other mss omit For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
10Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God,#Ac 8:20 and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”#Gn 26:19; Ps 36:7–9; Is 49:10; 55:1; Jr 2:13; Zch 14:8; Jn 7:38; Rv 7:17; 21:6; 22:1,17
11“Sir,”#Lk 10:1 said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? 12You aren’t greater than our father Jacob,#Mt 1:2; Lk 1:33 are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”
13Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. 14But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again.#Jn 6:35; 7:37; 1Co 4:11; Rv 7:16; 21:6; 22:17 In fact, the water I will give him will become a well#4:14 Or spring#Jms 3:11 of water springing up in him for eternal life.”#Jn 12:25; Ac 13:48; Rm 8:2; 1Jn 2:25
15“Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”
16 “Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.”
17“I don’t have a husband,” she answered.
“You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus said. 18“For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
19“Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,#Dt 11:29–12:14; 27:3; Jos 24:1 but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”#Mt 23:37
21Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.#Gn 12:1–7; Is 2:3; Mal 1:11; Mt 15:24; Jn 11:36; Rm 3:1–2; 9:4–5; 15:8–9 23But an hour is coming, and is now here,#Jn 5:25–29; 16:32 when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.#4:23 Or in spirit and truth, also in v. 24 Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. 24God is spirit,#Jn 1:33; 2Th 2:10; Jd 20 and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”#2Th 2:10
25The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah#Mt 1:17; Eph 5:2 is coming” (who is called Christ#Ex 29:29; Jn 1:41). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”#Ex 3:14; Ps 45:8; Jn 8:24
The Ripened Harvest
27Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” #Mt 1:17 30They left the town and made their way to him.#Mk 1:45
31In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi,#Jn 11:8 eat something.”
32But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”
33The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?”
34 “My food is to do the will of him #
Eph 1:9; 1Jn 2:17 who sent me#Jn 5:30 and to finish his work,”#Jn 5:36 Jesus told them. 35“Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open#4:35 Lit Raise your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready#4:35 Lit white for harvest. 36The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life,#Mk 10:17; Jn 12:25; Ac 13:48 so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. 37For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’#Lv 26:16; Dt 20:6; Jb 31:8; Mc 6:15; Mt 25:24; Lk 19:21 38I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from#4:38 Lit you have entered into their labor.”
The Savior of the World
39Now many Samaritans#Lk 9:52; Ac 1:8 from that town believed in him because of what the woman said#4:39 Lit because of the woman’s word when she testified,#Jn 15:26; Ac 26:5 “He told me everything I ever did.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him,#Mk 1:45 they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41Many more believed because of what he said.#4:41 Lit because of his word 42And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior#2Pt 3:18 of the world.”#4:42 Other mss add , the Messiah
A Galilean Welcome
43After two days he left there for Galilee.#Is 9:1–2; Mt 17:22 44(Jesus himself had testified#Jn 15:26; Ac 26:5 that a prophet has no honor in his own country.#Mt 13:57; Mk 6:4; Lk 4:24) 45When#Mt 4:17; Mk 1:14–15 they entered Galilee, the Galileans#Mt 26:69; Mk 14:70; Lk 13:1–2; 22:59; 23:6; Ac 1:11; 2:7; 5:37 welcomed him because they had seen everything he did in Jerusalem#Mt 23:37 during the festival.#Jn 2:23; 5:1 For they also had gone to the festival.
The Second Sign: Healing an Official’s Son
46He went again to Cana#Jn 2:1,11; 21:2 of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum.#Lk 10:15 47When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea#Lk 1:5 into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son, since he was about to die.
48Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders,#Ex 7:3–4; Mk 13:22; Jn 2:23–25; 6:26 you will not believe.”#Jn 3:16; 6:64; 20:25
49“Sir,”#Lk 10:1 the official said to him, “come down before my boy dies.”
50 “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what#4:50 Lit the word Jesus said to him and departed.
51While he was still going down, his servants met him saying that his boy was alive. 52He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at one in the afternoon#4:52 Lit at the seventh hour the fever left him,” they answered. 53The father#Lk 11:11; Col 3:21 realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household.
54Now this was also the second sign#Jn 2:11 Jesus performed after he came from Judea to Galilee.#Mt 17:22
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John 4: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
John 4
4
Jesus and the Woman of Samaria
1Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and #ch. 3:22, 26baptizing more disciples than John 2(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3he left Judea and departed #ch. 2:11, 12again for Galilee. 4#[Luke 13:33]And he had to pass through Samaria. 5So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field #ver. 12; Gen. 33:19; 48:22; Josh. 24:32that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, #ch. 19:28; [Matt. 4:2; 8:24; 21:18]wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.#4:6 That is, about noon
7A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, #[See ver. 6 above]“Give me a drink.” 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?” (#Luke 9:53; [ch. 8:48; Ezra 4:3, 10]; See Matt. 10:5For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 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 #ch. 7:38; Jer. 2:13; 17:13living water.” 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? 12#[ch. 8:53] Are you greater than our father Jacob? #ver. 5He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but #[ch. 6:35, 51, 58; 7:37] whoever drinks of the water that I will give him #[Isa. 49:10; Rev. 7:16] will never be thirsty again.#4:14 Greek forever The water that I will give him will become #ch. 7:38in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, #[ch. 6:34]give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16Jesus said to her, “Go, #ch. 16:8call your husband, and come here.” 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 #ch. 9:17; [ch. 6:14] you are #Luke 7:16, 39; See Matt. 21:11a prophet. 20#Gen. 12:6, 7; 33:18, 20; Deut. 11:29; 27:12; Josh. 8:33 Our fathers worshiped on #Judg. 9:7 this mountain, but you say that #See Deut. 12:5 in Jerusalem is #[ch. 11:48]the place where people ought to worship.” 21Jesus said to her, #ch. 2:4 “Woman, believe me, #ver. 23; ch. 5:25, 28; 16:2, 25, 32 the hour is coming when #Zeph. 2:11; Mal. 1:11; 1 Tim. 2:8neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22#[2 Kgs. 17:28-34; Acts 17:23] You worship what you do not know; #Ps. 147:19, 20; Isa. 2:3; Rom. 3:1, 2; 9:4, 5 we worship what we know, for #Ps. 147:19, 20; Isa. 2:3; Rom. 3:1, 2; 9:4, 5 salvation is #Matt. 2:4, 5; Acts 13:23; Rom. 11:26from the Jews. 23But #ver. 21 the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father #[Rom. 8:15; Eph. 2:18; 6:18; Phil. 3:3] in spirit and #Ps. 145:18; [ch. 1:17] truth, for the Father #[ch. 6:44]is seeking such people to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25The woman said to him, “I know that #See ch. 1:41 Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, #Deut. 18:18; [ver. 29]he will tell us all things.” 26Jesus said to her, #ch. 9:35-37“I who speak to you am he.”
27Just then #ver. 8his 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?” 28So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man #ver. 17, 18; [ver. 25]who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30They went out of the town and were coming to him.
31Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, #See ch. 1:38“Rabbi, eat.” 32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33So the disciples said to one another, #[ver. 11, 15; ch. 3:4; 6:34, 52]“Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34Jesus said to them, #[Job 23:12] “My food is #ch. 5:30; 6:38; 14:31 to do the will of him who sent me and #ch. 5:36; 17:4to accomplish his work. 35Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that #Matt. 9:37; Luke 10:2; [ver. 25, 30]the fields are white for harvest. 36Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that #[Matt. 13:37; Mark 4:14] sower and #ver. 38 reaper #Isa. 9:3; [Amos 9:13]may rejoice together. 37For here the saying holds true, #[Job 31:8]‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38I sent you to reap #Josh. 24:13 that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, #[Acts 8:5-17, 25]and you have entered into their labor.”
39Many Samaritans #ver. 5, 8 from that town believed in him #[ch. 17:20] because of #ver. 29the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed #ch. 8:30because of his word. 42They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, #[1 John 5:20] and we know that this is indeed #1 John 4:14; [ch. 3:17; 12:47; 1 Tim. 4:10] the Savior #See ch. 1:29of the world.”
43After #ver. 40the two days he departed for Galilee. 44(For Jesus himself had testified #See Matt. 13:57that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, #ch. 2:23; 3:2 having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For #ver. 20they too had gone to the feast.
Jesus Heals an Official’s Son
46So he came again to #ch. 2:1 Cana in Galilee, #ch. 2:9where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47When this man heard that Jesus #ver. 3, 54had 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. 48So Jesus said to him, #ch. 2:18; 6:30; [ch. 20:29]“Unless you#4:48 The Greek for you is plural; twice in this verse see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49The official said to him, “Sir, come down #[ch. 11:21, 32; Mark 5:35; Luke 8:49]before my child dies.” 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#4:51 Or bondservants 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#4:52 That is, at 1 p.m. 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, #Acts 16:34; 18:8; See Acts 11:14and all his household. 54#[ch. 2:11 with ver. 45, 46]This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
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