Daily Bread

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.^{(A) 20} Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,^(B) but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”^(C)

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

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

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

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

²⁷ Just then his disciples returned^(M) 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.^(N) Could this be the Messiah?”^{(O) 30} They came out of the town and made their way toward him.