²⁴ He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents^[a] of silver and built a city on the hill, calling it Samaria,^(A) after Shemer, the name of the former owner of the hill.

Samaria Resettled

²⁴ The king of Assyria^(A) brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim^(B) and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns.

⁵² And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan^(A) village to get things ready for him;

³³ But a Samaritan,^(A) as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.

¹⁶ He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.^(A)

⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria.^{(A) 5} So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.^{(B) 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?”^{(C) 8} (His disciples had gone into the town^(D) to buy food.)

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan^(E) 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.”^(F)

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^(G) 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.^(H) Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water^(I) welling up to eternal life.”^(J)

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty^(K) 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.^{(L) 20} Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,^(M) but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”^(N)

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

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

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

Many Samaritans Believe

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town^(A) believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”^(B)

⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.

Jesus’ Claims About Himself

⁴⁸ The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan^(A) and demon-possessed?”^(B)