John 4:10
New International Version
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.”

New Living Translation
Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

English Standard Version
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

Berean Standard Bible
Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

Berean Literal Bible
Jesus answered and said to her, "If you had known the gift of God and who it is saying to you, 'Give Me to drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given to you living water."

King James Bible
Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

New King James Version
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

New American Standard Bible
Jesus replied to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

NASB 1995
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

NASB 1977
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

Legacy Standard Bible
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

Amplified Bible
Jesus answered her, “If you knew [about] God’s gift [of eternal life], and who it is who says, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him [instead], and He would have given you living water (eternal life).”

Christian Standard Bible
Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, Give Me a drink,’ you would ask Him, and He would give you living water."”

American Standard Version
Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Yeshua answered and said to her, “If only you knew what the gift of God is, and who this is who says to you, 'Give me to drink', you would have asked for what he has, and he would have given you living waters.”

Contemporary English Version
Jesus answered, "You don't know what God wants to give you, and you don't know who is asking you for a drink. If you did, you would ask me for the water that gives life."

Douay-Rheims Bible
Jesus answered, and said to her: If thou didst know the gift of God, and who he is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou perhaps wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

English Revised Version
Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Jesus replied to her, "If you only knew what God's gift is and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him for a drink. He would have given you living water."

Good News Translation
Jesus answered, "If you only knew what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you life-giving water."

International Standard Version
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, 'Please give me a drink,' you would have been the one to ask him, and he would have given you living water."

Literal Standard Version
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you had known the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, Give Me to drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

Majority Standard Bible
Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

New American Bible
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

NET Bible
Jesus answered her, "If you had known the gift of God and who it is who said to you, 'Give me some water to drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

New Revised Standard Version
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

New Heart English Bible
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

Webster's Bible Translation
Jesus answered and said to her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked him, and he would have given thee living water.

Weymouth New Testament
"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."

World English Bible
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

Young's Literal Translation
Jesus answered and said to her, 'If thou hadst known the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked him, and he would have given thee living water.'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
9“You are a Jew,” said the woman. “How can You ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11“Sir,” the woman replied, “You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then will You get this living water?…

Cross References
Song of Solomon 4:15
You are a garden spring, a well of fresh water flowing down from Lebanon.

Isaiah 12:3
With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation,

Jeremiah 2:13
"For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns--broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

John 4:14
But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life."

John 7:37
On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.

John 7:38
Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: 'Streams of living water will flow from within him.'"

Ephesians 2:8
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,


Treasury of Scripture

Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that said to you, Give me to drink; you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water.

If.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 42:6
I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;

and who.

John 4:25,26
The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things…

John 9:35-38
Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? …

John 16:3
And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

thou wouldest.

2 Chronicles 33:12,13,18,19
And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, …

Psalm 10:17
LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

Isaiah 55:6-9
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: …

living.

John 4:14
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

John 6:35,51
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst…

John 7:37-39
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink…

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John 4
1. Jesus talks with a woman of Samaria, and reveals his identity to her.
27. His disciples marvel.
31. He declares to them his zeal for God's glory.
39. Many Samaritans believe on him.
43. He departs into Galilee, and heals the ruler's son that lay sick at Capernaum.














(10) If thou knewest the gift of God.--Expositors differ very widely as to the meaning to be given to "the gift of God" and "living water." See, e.g., the summaries of views in the notes of Meyer and Godet, both of which are now translated into English. Yet there can be little doubt of the true meaning if we observe the turn given to her question by the emphatic pronouns, "Thou wouldest have asked of Him." You stand by this deep well that for centuries has been God's gift of refreshment to man and beast; you have the means of drawing the water, and are thus the apparent benefactor to Him who asks for your aid. It is not really so. There is a deep well of spiritual truth in communion with God, as necessary for man's true life as water is for the natural life. I stand here with the means to draw, with the power to enter the depths hidden from man, and reveal to your spirit the Being of God. It is really you that are the traveller in the journey of life, weary with the burning heat of its trials, and travel-stained by the sins through which you have passed, thirsting in the hopes and fears of that spirit that cannot rest apart from God, helpless at the very side of the well, for the Eternal is ever near you, and you know Him not. If you knew this gift of God, and knew Who it is that is now here to reveal it to you, you would have asked, and He would have given you that Spirit, which would have been in you as a fountain of living water.

Verses 10-15. -

(b) The living water offered and misunderstood. Verse 10. - Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou hadst known the gift of God (but thou dost not; - this conclusion is involved in the form of the conditional sentence), and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink. Many suggestions are offered as to the meaning here of the "gift of God." Elsewhere (John 3:16) Christ is himself God's Gift, and St. Paul speaks of Christ as God's unspeakable Gift (Hengstenberg). Paul also declares that "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ." The living water, the refreshing, life-giving stream of blessedness which Christ is opening in this wilderness, is the meaning put back by some into these memorable words as they first fell from the lips of Jesus. So Lampe and Godet. But Augustine and others point to John 7:39, where John tells us that the living water of which Jesus speaks as welling up like a river in the heart of a believer, in the bosom of one who has come to him to slake his otherwise quenchless thirst, is "the Spirit," which those who believe on him should receive when Jesus would be glorified. This sublime renewal of the greatest gift of God by the Spirit is set forth under similar imagery in Isaiah 44:3 and Joel 2:28. However, words are functions of two minds; what they must or might have meant to her must have been Christ's meaning when he uttered them. The explanatory clause, Who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, solves the perplexity. That the Son of God, that the Logos in flesh, should have so emptied himself of his eternal glory as to ask for water from a Samaritan, and a woman, is in itself a gift, the supreme gift, of God. She did not know the fulness of his nature. So Lange, Grotius, and others. A remark by Dr. Yeomans is singularly suggestive: "The context shows that 'the gift of God' is a gift which God had already given, rather than one yet held in reserve - the actual gift of his condescension, rather than the offered gift of living water, or the Holy Ghost." Had she known it and put the two thoughts together in the rudest fashion, she would have known the gift of God, and she would have become the suppliant at once and he the Giver. Thou wouldest have asked (prayed, taken the position of the inferior) of him, and he would have given to thee living water. (For the phrase, "living water," see Genesis 26:19; and for its application, Zechariah 14:8; Jeremiah 2:13; Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:1.) The Divine supply of heaven-sent life, which will slake all thirst for lesser gifts, and which will constitute the perennial blessedness of saved and glorified spirits. The gift of God is the full discovery of personal relations with the veritable Source of all life. This becomes life eternal as it leads to knowledge of the only God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent; and assists a full realization of the life, the Source and End of which are God. It is interesting to notice that Philo, in many places, declares these wells of water (Genesis 29:2) to mean "true philosophy or wisdom, deep and only with difficulty drawn upon." "Flowing water is the Logos himself, 'cisterns' represent memories of past knowledge;" but the Old Testament usage quoted above is a far more rational justification of the language used by our Lord.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
Jesus
Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2424: Of Hebrew origin; Jesus, the name of our Lord and two other Israelites.

answered,
Ἀπεκρίθη (Apekrithē)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Passive - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 611: From apo and krino; to conclude for oneself, i.e. to respond; by Hebraism to begin to speak.

“If
Εἰ (Ei)
Conjunction
Strong's 1487: If. A primary particle of conditionality; if, whether, that, etc.

you knew
ᾔδεις (ēdeis)
Verb - Pluperfect Indicative Active - 2nd Person Singular
Strong's 1492: To know, remember, appreciate.

the
τὴν (tēn)
Article - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

gift
δωρεὰν (dōrean)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 1431: A (free) gift, a gift (without repayment). From doron; a gratuity.

of God
Θεοῦ (Theou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2316: A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

who
τίς (tis)
Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5101: Who, which, what, why. Probably emphatic of tis; an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what.

is
ἐστιν (estin)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

asking
λέγων (legōn)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3004: (a) I say, speak; I mean, mention, tell, (b) I call, name, especially in the pass., (c) I tell, command.

you
σοι (soi)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative 2nd Person Singular
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

[for]
Δός (Dos)
Verb - Aorist Imperative Active - 2nd Person Singular
Strong's 1325: To offer, give; I put, place. A prolonged form of a primary verb; to give.

a drink,
πεῖν (pein)
Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active
Strong's 4095: To drink, imbibe. A prolonged form of pio, which poo occurs only as an alternate in certain tenses; to imbibe.

you
σὺ (sy)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Nominative 2nd Person Singular
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

would have asked
ᾔτησας (ētēsas)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 2nd Person Singular
Strong's 154: To ask, request, petition, demand. Of uncertain derivation; to ask.

Him,
αὐτὸν (auton)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Accusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

He would have given
ἔδωκεν (edōken)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1325: To offer, give; I put, place. A prolonged form of a primary verb; to give.

you
σοι (soi)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative 2nd Person Singular
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

living
ζῶν (zōn)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 2198: To live, be alive. A primary verb; to live.

water.�
ὕδωρ (hydōr)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 5204: Water. And genitive case, hudatos, etc. From the base of huetos; water literally or figuratively.


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