John 4 - Easy To Read Version

¹ The Pharisees {\cf2\super [57]} heard that Jesus was making and baptizing {\cf2\super [58]} more followers than John.

² (But really Jesus himself did not baptize people. His followers baptized people for him.) Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard about him.

³ So Jesus left Judea and went back to Galilee.

⁴ On the way to Galilee Jesus had to go through the country of Samaria.

⁵ In Samaria Jesus came to the town called Sychar. This town is near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

⁶ Jacob’s well was there. Jesus was tired from his long trip. So Jesus sat down beside the well. It was about noon.

⁷ A Samaritan {\cf2\super [59]} woman came to that well to get some water. Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink of water.”

⁸ (This happened while Jesus’ followers went to town to buy some food.)

⁹ The Samaritan {\cf2\super [60]} woman answered, “I am surprised that you ask me for a drink! You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman!” (Jews are not friends with Samaritans. {\cf2\super [61]})

¹⁰ Jesus answered, “You don’t know about the thing God gives. And you don’t know who I am that asked you for a drink. If you knew these things, you would have asked me and I would have given you living water.”

¹¹ The woman said, “Sir, where will you get that living water? The well is very deep, and you have nothing to get water with.

¹² Are you greater than Jacob {\cf2\super [62]} our father {\cf2\super [63]} ? Jacob is the one that gave us this well. He drank from it himself. Also, his sons and all his animals drank water from this well.”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Every person that drinks this water will be thirsty again.

¹⁴ But the person that drinks the water I give will never be thirsty again. That water I give will become like a spring of water flowing inside that person. That water will bring that person life forever.”

¹⁵ The woman said to Jesus, “Sir, give me this water. Then I will never be thirsty again. And I will not have to come back here to get more water.”

¹⁶ Jesus told her, “Go get your husband and come back here.”

¹⁷ The woman answered, “But I have no husband.”

¹⁸ Really you have had five husbands. But the man you live with now is not your husband. You told me the truth.”

¹⁹ The woman said, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. {\cf2\super [64]}

²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain. But you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where people must worship.”

²¹ Jesus said, “Believe me, woman! The time is coming when you will not have to be in Jerusalem or on that mountain to worship the Father (God).

²² You Samaritans {\cf2\super [65]} worship something that you don’t understand. We Jews understand what we worship. Salvation comes from the Jews.

²³ The time is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. That time is now here. And those are the kind of people the Father wants to be his worshipers.

²⁴ God is spirit. So the people that worship God must worship in spirit and truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that the Messiah is coming.” (Messiah is the One called Christ. {\cf2\super [66]})“When the Messiah comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus said, “That person is talking to you now. I am \{the Messiah\}.”

²⁷ At that time Jesus’ followers came back from town. They were surprised because they saw Jesus talking with a woman. But none of them asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar and went back to town. She told the people in town,

²⁹ “A man told me everything I have ever done. Come see him. Maybe he is the Christ. {\cf2\super [67]} ”

³⁰ So the people left the town and went to see Jesus.

³¹ While the woman was in town, Jesus’ followers were begging him, “Teacher, eat something!”

³² But Jesus answered, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³ So the followers asked themselves, “Did somebody already bring Jesus some food?”

³⁴ Jesus said, “My food is to do what the One (God) who sent me wants me to do. My food is to finish the work that he gave me to do.

³⁵ \{When you plant\} you always say, ‘Four more months to wait before we gather the grain.’ But I tell you, open your eyes. Look at the \{people. They are like\} fields ready for harvesting now.

³⁶ Even now, the person that harvests the crop is being paid. He is gathering crops for eternal life. So now the person that plants can be happy together with the person that harvests.

³⁷ It is true when we say, ‘One person plants, but another person harvests the crop.’

³⁸ I sent you to harvest a crop that you did not work for. Other people did the work, and you get the profit from their work.”

³⁹ Many of the Samaritan {\cf2\super [68]} people in that town believed in Jesus. They believed because of what the woman had told them about Jesus. She had told them, “He (Jesus) told me everything I have ever done.”

⁴⁰ The Samaritans went to Jesus. They begged Jesus to stay with them. So Jesus stayed there two days.

⁴¹ Many more people believed because of the things Jesus said.

⁴² The people said to the woman, “First we believed in Jesus because of what you told us. But now we believe because we heard him ourselves. We know now that he really is the one that will save the world.”

⁴³ Two days later Jesus left and went to Galilee.

⁴⁴ (Jesus had said before that a prophet {\cf2\super [69]} is not respected in his own country.)

⁴⁵ When Jesus arrived in Galilee, the people there welcomed him. These people had seen all the things Jesus did at the \{Passover {\cf2\super [70]} \} festival in Jerusalem. These people had been at the festival too.

⁴⁶ Jesus went to visit Cana in Galilee again. Cana is where Jesus had changed the water into wine. One of the king’s important officials lived in the city of Capernaum. This man’s son was sick.

⁴⁷ The man heard that Jesus had come from Judea and was now in Galilee. So the man went to Jesus \{in Cana\}. He begged Jesus to come to Capernaum and heal his son. His son was almost dead.

⁴⁸ Jesus said to him, “You people must see miracles {\cf2\super [71]} and wonderful works before you will believe in me.”

⁴⁹ The king’s official said, “Sir, come \{to my house\} before my little son dies.”

⁵⁰ Jesus answered, “Go. Your son will live.”

⁵¹ On the way home the man’s servants came and met him. They told him, “Your son is well.”

⁵² The man asked, “What time did my son begin to get well?”

⁵³ The father knew that one o’clock was the same time that Jesus had said, “Your son will live.” So the man and all the people in his home believed in Jesus.

⁵⁴ That was the second miracle {\cf2\super [72]} that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.