4:1 Now as soon as the Master was aware that the Pharisees had heard it said, "Jesus is gaining and baptizing more disciples than John"--

4:2 though Jesus Himself did not baptize them, but His disciples did--

4:3 He left Judaea and returned to Galilee.

4:4 His road lay through Samaria,

4:5 and so He came to Sychar, a town in Samaria near the piece of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

4:6 Jacob's Well was there: and accordingly Jesus, tired out with His journey, sat down by the well to rest. It was about six o'clock in the evening.

4:7 Presently there came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus asked her to give Him some water;

4:8 for His disciples were gone to the town to buy provisions.

4:9 "How is it," replied the woman, "that a Jew like you asks me, who am a woman and a Samaritan, for water?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

4:10 "If you had known God's free gift," replied Jesus, "and who it is that said to you, `Give me some water,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

4:11 "Sir," she said, "you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; so where can you get the living water from?

4:12 Are you greater than our forefather Jacob, who gave us the well, and himself drank from it, as did also his sons and his cattle?"

4:13 "Every one," replied Jesus, "who drinks any of this water will be thirsty again;

4:14 but whoever drinks any of the water that I shall give him will never, never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become a fountain within him of water springing up for the Life of the Ages."

4:15 "Sir," said the woman, "give me that water, that I may never be thirsty, nor continually come all the way here to draw from the well."

4:16 "Go and call your husband," said Jesus; "and come back."

4:17 "I have no husband," she replied. "You rightly say that you have no husband," said Jesus;

4:18 "for you have had five husbands, and the man you have at present is not your husband. You have spoken the truth in saying that."

4:19 "Sir," replied the woman, "I see that you are a Prophet.

4:20 Our forefathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem."

4:21 "Believe me," said Jesus, "the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

4:22 You worship One of whom you know nothing. We worship One whom we know; for salvation comes from the Jews.

4:23 But a time is coming--nay, has already come--when the true worshippers will worship the Father with true spiritual worship; for indeed the Father desires such worshippers.

4:24 God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must bring Him true spiritual worship."

4:25 "I know," replied the woman, "that Messiah is coming--`the Christ,' as He is called. When He has come, He will tell us everything."

4:26 "I am He," said Jesus--"I who am now talking to you."

4:27 Just then His disciples came, and were surprised to find Him talking with a woman. Yet not one of them asked Him, "What is your wish?" or "Why are you talking with her?"

4:28 The woman however, leaving her pitcher, went away to the town, and called the people.

4:29 "Come," she said, "and see a man who has told me everything I have ever done. Can this be the Christ, do you think?"

4:30 They left the town and set out to go to Him.

4:31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging Jesus. "Rabbi," they said, "eat something."

4:32 "I have food to eat," He replied, "of which you do not know."

4:33 So the disciples began questioning one another. "Can it be," they said, "that some one has brought Him something to eat?"

4:34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to be obedient to Him who sent me, and fully to accomplish His work.

4:35 Do you not say, `It wants four months yet to the harvest'? But look round, I tell you, and observe these plains-- they are already ripe for the sickle.

4:36 The reaper gets pay and gathers in a crop in preparation for the Life of the Ages, that so the sower and the reapers may rejoice together.

4:37 For it is in this that you see the real meaning of the saying, `The sower is one person, and the reaper is another.'

4:38 I sent you to reap a harvest which is not the result of your own labours. Others have laboured, and you are getting benefit from their labours."

4:39 Of the Samaritan population of that town a good many believed in Him because of the woman's statement when she declared, "He has told me all that I have ever done."

4:40 When however the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him on all sides to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.

4:41 Then a far larger number of people believed because of His own words,

4:42 and they said to the woman, "We no longer believe in Him simply because of your statements; for we have now heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world."

4:43 After the two days He departed, and went into Galilee;

4:44 though Jesus Himself declared that a Prophet has no honour in his own country.

4:45 When however He reached Galilee, the Galilaeans welcomed Him eagerly, having been eye-witnesses of all that He had done in Jerusalem at the Festival; for they also had been to the Festival.

4:46 So He came once more to Cana in Galilee, where He had made the water into wine. Now there was a certain officer of the King's court whose son was ill at Capernaum.

4:47 Having heard that Jesus had come from Judaea to Galilee, he came to Him and begged Him to go down and cure his son; for he was at the point of death.

4:48 "Unless you and others see miracles and marvels," said Jesus, "nothing will induce you to believe."

4:49 "Sir," pleaded the officer, "come down before my child dies."

4:50 "You may return home," replied Jesus; "your son has recovered." He believed the words of Jesus, and started back home;

4:51 and he was already on his way down when his servants met him and told him that his son was alive and well.

4:52 So he inquired of them at what hour he had shown improvement. "Yesterday, about seven o'clock," they replied, "the fever left him."

4:53 Then the father recollected that that was the time at which Jesus had said to him, "Your son has recovered," and he and his whole household became believers.