Water From the Rock

17 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin,^(A) traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim,^(B) but there was no water^(C) for the people to drink. ² So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water^(D) to drink.”^(E)

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”^(F)

³ But the people were thirsty^(G) for water there, and they grumbled^(H) against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die^(I) of thirst?”

⁴ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone^(J) me.”

⁵ The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff^(K) with which you struck the Nile,^(L) and go. ⁶ I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb.^(M) Strike^(N) the rock, and water^(O) will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷ And he called the place Massah^[a](P) and Meribah^[b](Q) because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.^{(A) 6} Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”^{(B) 8} (His disciples had gone into the town^(C) to buy food.)

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan^(D) woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^[a])

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”^(E)

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well^(F) and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.^(G) Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water^(H) welling up to eternal life.”^(I)

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty^(J) and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.^{(K) 20} Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,^(L) but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”^(M)

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming^(N) when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.^{(O) 22} You Samaritans worship what you do not know;^(P) we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.^{(Q) 23} Yet a time is coming and has now come^(R) when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit^(S) and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit,^(T) and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ)^(U) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”^(V)

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

²⁷ Just then his disciples returned^(W) and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.^(X) Could this be the Messiah?”^{(Y) 30} They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi,^(Z) eat something.”

³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat^(AA) that you know nothing about.”

³³ Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will^(AB) of him who sent me and to finish his work.^{(AC) 35} Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.^{(AD) 36} Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests^(AE) a crop for eternal life,^(AF) so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’^(AG) is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Many Samaritans Believe

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town^(AH) believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”^{(AI) 40} So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers.

⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”^(AJ)