Psalm 38:1–3, 9–11, 21–22

¹O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath!
²For your arrows have sunk into me,
and your hand has come down on me.
³There is no soundness in my flesh
because of your indignation;
there is no health in my bones
because of my sin.

⁹O Lord, all my longing is before you;
my sighing is not hidden from you.
¹⁰My heart throbs; my strength fails me,
and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.
¹¹My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague,
and my nearest kin stand far off.

²¹Do not forsake me, O Lord!
O my God, be not far from me!
²²Make haste to help me,
O Lord, my salvation!

Old Testament Reading Job 6:14–30

¹⁴“He who withholds kindness from a friend
forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
¹⁵My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed,
as torrential streams that pass away,
¹⁶which are dark with ice,
and where the snow hides itself.
¹⁷When they melt, they disappear;
when it is hot, they vanish from their place.
¹⁸The caravans turn aside from their course;
they go up into the waste and perish.
¹⁹The caravans of Tema look,
the travelers of Sheba hope.
²⁰They are ashamed because they were confident;
they come there and are disappointed.
²¹For you have now become nothing;
you see my calamity and are afraid.
²²Have I said, ‘Make me a gift’?
Or, ‘From your wealth offer a bribe for me’?
²³Or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand’?
Or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless’?
²⁴“Teach me, and I will be silent;
make me understand how I have gone astray.
²⁵How forceful are upright words!
But what does reproof from you reprove?
²⁶Do you think that you can reprove words,
when the speech of a despairing man is wind?
²⁷You would even cast lots over the fatherless,
and bargain over your friend.
²⁸“But now, be pleased to look at me,
for I will not lie to your face.
²⁹Please turn; let no injustice be done.
Turn now; my vindication is at stake.
³⁰Is there any injustice on my tongue?
Cannot my palate discern the cause of calamity?”

New Testament Reading John 3:22—4:6

²²After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. ²³John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized ²⁴(for John had not yet been put in prison).

²⁵Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. ²⁶And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” ²⁷John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. ²⁸You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ ²⁹The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. ³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.”

³¹He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. ³²He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. ³³Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. ³⁴For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. ³⁵The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. ³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

¹Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John ²(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), ³he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. ⁴And he had to pass through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.