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The Story of the Woman at the Well,
from the New Living Translation of the Holy Bible
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He had to go through Samaria on the way. Eventually he came to the
Samaritan village of Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob
gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; and Jesus, tired from
the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon a
Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her,
"Please give me a drink." He was alone at the time
because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.
The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with
Samaritans. She said to Jesus, "You are a Jew, and I am a
Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?"
Jesus replied, "If you only knew the gift God has for you and
who I am, you would ask me, and I would give you living water."
"But sir, you don't have a rope or a bucket," she said,
"and this is a very deep well. Where would you get this living
water? And besides, are you greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave
us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and
his cattle enjoyed?"
"Please, sir," the woman said, "give me some of that
water! Then I'll never be thirsty again, and I won't have to come
here to haul water."
"Go and get your husband," Jesus told her.
"I don't have a husband," the woman replied.
Jesus said, "You're right! You don't have a husband...for you
have had five husbands, and you aren't even married to the man you're
living with now."
"Sir," the woman said, "you must be a prophet.
So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only
place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount
Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?"
Jesus replied, "Believe me, the time is coming when it will no
longer matter whether you worship the Father here or in
Jerusalem. You Samaritans know so little about the one you
worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes
through the Jews. But the time is coming and is already here
when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
The Father is looking for anyone who will worship him that way. For
God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth."
The woman said, "I know the Messiah will come...the one who is
called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
Then Jesus told her, "I am the Messiah!"
Just then his disciples arrived. They were astonished to find him
talking to a woman, but none of them asked him why he was doing it or
what they had been discussing. The woman left her water jar
beside the well and went back to the village and told everyone,
"Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did! Can this
be the Messiah?" So the people came streaming from the
village to see him.
Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus to eat. "No," he
said, "I have food you don't know about."
"Who brought it to him?" the disciples asked each other.
Then Jesus explained: "My nourishment comes from doing the will
of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. Do you think
the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four
months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around
us and are ready now for the harvest. The harvesters are paid
good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal
life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike!
You know the saying, `One person plants and someone else harvests.'
And it's true. I sent you to harvest where you didn't plant;
others had already done the work, and you will gather the harvest."
Many Samaritans Believe
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Jesus Goes to Galilee
Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus
was making and baptizing more disciples than John although Jesus
Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were, He left Judea and
went away again into Galilee. And He had to pass through Samaria.
The Woman of Samaria
Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God,
and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have
asked Him, and He would have given you living water."
She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the
well is deep; where then do You get that living water?
"You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us
the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?"
Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this
water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will
give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will
become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."
The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not
be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw."
He said to her, "Go, call your husband and come here."
The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus
said to her, "You have correctly said, 'I have no husband'; for
you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your
husband; this you have said truly."
The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a
prophet. "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you
people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."
Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when
neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the
Father. "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we
know, for salvation is from the Jews. "But an hour is
coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father
in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His
worshipers. "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must
worship in spirit and truth."
The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming He who is
called Christ; when that One comes, He will declare all things to us."
Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."
At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had
been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, "What do You
seek?" or, "Why do You speak with her?"
So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to
the men, "Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have
done; this is not the Christ, is it?"
They went out of the city, and were coming to Him. Meanwhile
the disciples were urging Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But He
said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about."
Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent
Me and to accomplish His work.
"Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the
harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the
fields, that they are white for harvest. "Already he who
reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so
that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
"For in this case the saying is true, 'One sows and another
reaps.' "I sent you to reap that for which you have not
labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor." The Samaritans
From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the
word of the woman who testified, "He told me all the things that
I have done." So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they
were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the
woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we
believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is
indeed the Savior of the world." John 4:6 Perhaps 6 p.m. Roman time or noon Jewish time
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