John 5:1-14

Contemporary English Version

Jesus Heals a Sick Man

5 Later, Jesus went to Jerusalem for another Jewish festival.^{[a] 2} In the city near the sheep gate was a pool with five porches, and its name in Hebrew was Bethzatha.^[b]

^3-4 Many sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people were lying close to the pool.^[c]

⁵ Beside the pool was a man who had been sick for 38 years. ⁶ When Jesus saw the man and realized that he had been crippled for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be healed?”

⁷ The man answered, “Sir, I don't have anyone to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up. I try to get in, but someone else always gets there first.”

⁸ Jesus told him, “Pick up your mat and walk!” ⁹ Right then the man was healed. He picked up his mat and started walking around. The day on which this happened was a Sabbath.

^10 (A) When the Jewish leaders saw the man carrying his mat, they said to him, “This is the Sabbath! No one is allowed to carry a mat on the Sabbath.”

¹¹ But he replied, “The man who healed me told me to pick up my mat and walk.”

¹² They asked him, “Who is this man that told you to pick up your mat and walk?” ¹³ But he did not know who Jesus was, and Jesus had left because of the crowd.

¹⁴ Later, Jesus met the man in the temple and told him, “You are now well. But don't sin anymore or something worse might happen to you.”