The river

47 When he brought me back to the temple’s entrance, I noticed that water was flowing toward the east from under the temple’s threshold (the temple faced east). The water was going out from under the temple’s facade toward the south, south of the altar. ² He led me out through the north gate and around the outside to the outer east gate, where the water flowed out under the facade on the south side. ³ With the line in his hand, the man went out toward the east. When he measured off fifteen hundred feet, he made me cross the water; it was ankle-deep. ⁴ He measured off another fifteen hundred feet and made me cross the water; it was knee-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet and made me cross the water, and it was waist-high. ⁵ When he measured off another fifteen hundred feet, it had become a river that I couldn’t cross. The water was high, deep enough for swimming but too high to cross. ⁶ He said to me, “Human one, do you see?” Then he led me back to the edge of the river. ⁷ When I went back, I saw very many trees on both banks of the river. ⁸ He said to me, “These waters go out to the eastern region, flow down the steep slopes,^[a] and go into the Dead Sea.^[b] When the flowing waters enter the sea, its water becomes fresh. ⁹ Wherever the river flows, every living thing that moves will thrive. There will be great schools of fish, because when these waters enter the sea, it will be fresh. Wherever the river flows, everything will live.

¹² but on both banks of the river will grow up all kinds of fruit-bearing trees. Their leaves won’t wither, and their fruitfulness won’t wane. They will produce fruit in every month, because their water comes from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for eating, their leaves for healing.”

Psalm 46

For the music leader. Of the Korahites. According to Alamoth.^[a] A song.

Sabbath healing

5 After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate in the north city wall is a pool with the Aramaic name Bethsaida. It had five covered porches, ³ and a crowd of people who were sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed sat there.^{[a] 5} A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there, knowing that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ The sick man answered him, “Sir,^[b] I don’t have anyone who can put me in the water when it is stirred up. When I’m trying to get to it, someone else has gotten in ahead of me.”

⁸ Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ Immediately the man was well, and he picked up his mat and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.

¹⁰ The Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It’s the Sabbath; you aren’t allowed to carry your mat.”

¹¹ He answered, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² They inquired, “Who is this man who said to you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” ¹³ The man who had been cured didn’t know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away from the crowd gathered there.

¹⁴ Later Jesus found him in the temple and said, “See! You have been made well. Don’t sin anymore in case something worse happens to you.” ¹⁵ The man went and proclaimed to the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the man who had made him well.

¹⁶ As a result, the Jewish leaders were harassing Jesus, since he had done these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷ Jesus replied, “My Father is still working, and I am working too.” ¹⁸ For this reason the Jewish leaders wanted even more to kill him—not only because he was doing away with the Sabbath but also because he called God his own Father, thereby making himself equal with God.