Acts 28:1-11

Worldwide English (New Testament)

28 When we were safe on land, we found that the island we were on was called Malta.

² The people there were very kind to us. They made a fire for us and took care of us. It was cold and raining.

³ Paul gathered some sticks of wood. He put them on the fire. A bad snake came out of the heat and hung onto his hand.

⁴ The people of Malta saw the snake hanging on his hand. `Oh,' they said to each other. `This man has no doubt killed someone. He did not die in the water, but it is not right for him to live.'

⁵ Paul shook the snake off into the fire. It did not hurt him.

⁶ The people thought surely he would swell up or would drop down dead at once. They waited a long time and saw that nothing bad happened to him. Then they said, `We were wrong. He must be a god.'

⁷ The ruler of the island was a man named Publius. He owned some of the land there. He took us to his house for three days and was very kind to us.

⁸ The father of Publius was sick with fever, and blood was coming from his body. Paul went to see him. He talked to God and put his hands on the man. He healed him.

⁹ After this, other sick people on the island came to Paul. And they too were healed.

¹⁰ They gave us many things. When we went away, they put on the boat for us the things that we would need.

¹¹ A boat from the town of Alexandria was at the island all through the winter time. It was marked with a sign of the Twin Brothers. After we had been on the island for three months, we went on that boat.