John 5:1-11

Good News Translation

The Healing at the Pool

5 After this, Jesus went to Jerusalem for a religious festival. ² Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool^[a] with five porches; in Hebrew it is called Bethzatha.^{[b] 3} A large crowd of sick people were lying on the porches—the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. ^{4 [c] 5} A man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. ⁶ Jesus saw him lying there, and he knew that the man had been sick for such a long time; so he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ The sick man answered, “Sir, I don't have anyone here to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am trying to get in, somebody else gets there first.”

⁸ Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.” ⁹ Immediately the man got well; he picked up his mat and started walking.

The day this happened was a Sabbath, ^10 (A)so the Jewish authorities told the man who had been healed, “This is a Sabbath, and it is against our Law for you to carry your mat.”

¹¹ He answered, “The man who made me well told me to pick up my mat and walk.”