Jesus' Ministry in Galilee

The Discourse with the Woman of Samaria

John 4:4

And he had to pass through Samaria.

Samaria
2 Kings 17:21–34, 41

When he had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the LORD and made them commit great sin. The people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did. They did not depart from them, until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day. And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the LORD. Therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which killed some of them. So the king of Assyria was told, "The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land." Then the king of Assyria commanded, "Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him go and dwell there and teach them the law of the god of the land." So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the LORD. But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. They also feared the LORD and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. So they feared the LORD but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away. To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the LORD, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel.... So these nations feared the LORD and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children's children--as their fathers did, so they do to this day.

John 4:5

So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

the field
Genesis 32:11

Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.

Genesis 32:24, 28

And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day….
Then he said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed."

Genesis 33:18-19

And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram, and he camped before the city. And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent.

John 4:6

Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

John 4:7

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."

John 4:8

(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)

John 4:9

The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

John 4:10

Jesus 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 living water."

John 4:11

The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?

John 4:12

Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock."

John 4:13

Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,

John 4:14

but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

John 4:15

The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."

John 4:16

Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."

John 4:17

The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband';

John 4:18

for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true."

John 4:19

The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

John 4:20

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."

John 4:21

Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

John 4:22

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

John 4:23

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

John 4:24

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

John 4:25

The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things."

John 4:26

Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he."

John 4:27

Just then his 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?"

John 4:28

So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people,

John 4:29

"Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?"

John 4:30

They went out of the town and were coming to him.

John 4:31

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, "Rabbi, eat."

John 4:32

But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about."

John 4:33

So the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?"

John 4:34

Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

John 4:35

Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.

John 4:36

Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

John 4:37

For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.'

John 4:38

I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

John 4:39

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me all that I ever did."

John 4:40

So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.

John 4:41

And many more believed because of his word.

John 4:42

They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world."