John 4:10

4:10 Jesus answered ¹  her, “If you had known ²  the gift of God and who it is who said to you, ‘Give me some water ³  to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ⁴ 

John 6:35

6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty. ⁵ 

Psalms 36:8-9

36:8 They are filled with food from your house,

and you allow them to drink from the river of your delicacies.

36:9 For you are the one who gives

and sustains life. ⁶ 

Psalms 42:2

42:2 I thirst ⁷  for God,

for the living God.

I say, ⁸  “When will I be able to go and appear in God’s presence?” ⁹ 

Psalms 63:1

Psalm 63 ¹⁰ 

A psalm of David, written when he was in the Judean wilderness. ¹¹ 

63:1 O God, you are my God! I long for you! ¹² 

My soul thirsts ¹³  for you,

my flesh yearns for you,

in a dry and parched ¹⁴  land where there is no water.

Psalms 143:6

143:6 I spread my hands out to you in prayer; ¹⁵ 

my soul thirsts for you in a parched ¹⁶  land. ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 12:3

12:3 Joyfully you will draw water

from the springs of deliverance. ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 41:17-18

41:17 The oppressed and the poor look for water, but there is none;

their tongues are parched from thirst.

I, the Lord, will respond to their prayers; ¹⁹ 

I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.

41:18 I will make streams flow down the slopes

and produce springs in the middle of the valleys.

I will turn the desert into a pool of water

and the arid land into springs.

Isaiah 44:3

44:3 For I will pour water on the parched ground ²⁰ 

and cause streams to flow ²¹  on the dry land.

I will pour my spirit on your offspring

and my blessing on your children.

Isaiah 55:1

The Lord Gives an Invitation

55:1 “Hey, ²²  all who are thirsty, come to the water!

You who have no money, come!

Buy and eat!

Come! Buy wine and milk

without money and without cost! ²³ 

Amos 8:11-13

8:11 Be certain of this, ²⁴  the time is ²⁵  coming,” says the sovereign Lord,

“when I will send a famine through the land –

not a shortage of food or water

but an end to divine revelation! ²⁶ 

8:12 People ²⁷  will stagger from sea to sea, ²⁸ 

and from the north around to the east.

They will wander about looking for a revelation from ²⁹  the Lord,

but they will not find any. ³⁰ 

8:13 In that day your ³¹  beautiful young women ³²  and your ³³  young men will faint from thirst. ³⁴ 

Revelation 21:6

21:6 He also said to me, “It is done! ³⁵  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the one who is thirsty I will give water ³⁶  free of charge ³⁷  from the spring of the water of life.

Revelation 22:1

22:1 Then ³⁸  the angel ³⁹  showed me the river of the water of life – water as clear as crystal – pouring out ⁴⁰  from the throne of God and of the Lamb,

Revelation 22:17

22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say: “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge.

[4:10]  ¹ tn Grk “answered and said to her.”

[4:10]  ² tn Or “if you knew.”

[4:10]  ³ tn The phrase “some water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).

[4:10]  ⁴ tn This is a second class conditional sentence in Greek.

[6:35]  ⁵ tn Grk “the one who believes in me will not possibly thirst, ever.”

[36:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “for with you is the fountain of life, in your light we see light.” Water (note “fountain”) and light are here metaphors for life.

[42:2]  ⁷ tn Or “my soul thirsts.”

[42:2]  ⁸ tn The words “I say” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.

[42:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “When will I go and appear [to] the face of God?” Some emend the Niphal verbal form אֵרָאֶה (’era’eh, “I will appear”) to a Qal אֶרְאֶה (’er’eh, “I will see”; see Gen 33:10), but the Niphal can be retained if one understands ellipsis of אֶת (’et) before “face” (see Exod 34:24; Deut 31:11).

[63:1]  ¹⁰ sn Psalm 63. The psalmist expresses his intense desire to be in God’s presence and confidently affirms that God will judge his enemies.

[63:1]  ¹¹ sn According to the psalm superscription David wrote the psalm while in the “wilderness of Judah.” Perhaps this refers to the period described in 1 Sam 23-24 or to the incident mentioned in 2 Sam 15:23.

[63:1]  ¹² tn Or “I will seek you.”

[63:1]  ¹³ tn Or “I thirst.”

[63:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “faint” or “weary.” This may picture the land as “faint” or “weary,” or it may allude to the effect this dry desert has on those who are forced to live in it.

[143:6]  ¹⁵ tn The words “in prayer” are supplied in the translation to clarify that the psalmist is referring to a posture of prayer.

[143:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “faint” or “weary.” See Ps 63:1.

[143:6]  ¹⁷ tc Heb “my soul like a faint land for you.” A verb (perhaps “thirsts”) is implied (see Ps 63:1). The translation assumes an emendation of the preposition -כְּ (kÿ, “like”) to -בְּ (bÿ, “in,” see Ps 63:1; cf. NEB “athirst for thee in a thirsty land”). If the MT is retained, one might translate, “my soul thirsts for you, as a parched land does for water/rain” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[12:3]  ¹⁸ tn Or “salvation” (so many English versions, e.g., KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); CEV “victory.”

[41:17]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “will answer them” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[44:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the thirsty.” Parallelism suggests that dry ground is in view (see “dry land” in the next line.)

[44:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “and streams”; KJV “floods.” The verb “cause…to flow” is supplied in the second line for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[55:1]  ²² tn The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments and is often prefixed to judgment oracles for rhetorical effect. But here it appears to be a simple interjection, designed to grab the audience’s attention. Perhaps there is a note of sorrow or pity. See BDB 223 s.v.

[55:1]  ²³ sn The statement is an oxymoron. Its ironic quality adds to its rhetorical impact. The statement reminds one of the norm (one must normally buy commodities) as it expresses the astounding offer. One might paraphrase the statement: “Come and take freely what you normally have to pay for.”

[8:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[8:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the days are.”

[8:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “not a hunger for food or a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord.”

[8:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “they”; the referent (people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:12]  ²⁸ tn That is, from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Dead Sea in the east – that is, across the whole land.

[8:12]  ²⁹ tn Heb “looking for the word of.”

[8:12]  ³⁰ tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the Lord or the prophet.

[8:13]  ³¹ tn Heb “the.”

[8:13]  ³² tn Or “virgins.”

[8:13]  ³³ tn Heb “the.”

[8:13]  ³⁴ tn It is not clear whether the speaker in this verse is the Lord or the prophet.

[21:6]  ³⁵ tn Or “It has happened.”

[21:6]  ³⁶ tn The word “water” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[21:6]  ³⁷ tn Or “as a free gift” (see L&N 57.85).

[22:1]  ³⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[22:1]  ³⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the angel mentioned in 21:9, 15) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “proceeding.” Water is more naturally thought to pour out or flow out in English idiom.