⁹ During the night Paul had a vision^(A) of a man of Macedonia^(B) standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰ After Paul had seen the vision, we^(C) got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel^(D) to them.

Lydia’s Conversion in Philippi

¹¹ From Troas^(E) we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. ¹² From there we traveled to Philippi,^(F) a Roman colony and the leading city of that district^[a] of Macedonia.^(G) And we stayed there several days.

¹³ On the Sabbath^(H) we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴ One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira^(I) named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart^(J) to respond to Paul’s message. ¹⁵ When she and the members of her household^(K) were baptized,^(L) she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

The Healing at the Pool

5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ² Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate^(A) a pool, which in Aramaic^(B) is called Bethesda^[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. ^{[4] [b] 5} One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”^{(C) 9} At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,^(D)