Reading the Bible Together

The Healing at the Pool

1 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 pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3-4 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 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.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

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

12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

To the Church in Thyatira

18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. 24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

26 To those who are victorious and do my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 they ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’ —just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give them the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

A song of ascents.

1 LORD, remember David
and all his self-denial.

2 He swore an oath to the LORD
and made a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob:

3 “I will not enter my house
or go to my bed,

4 I will allow no sleep to my eyes
or slumber to my eyelids,

5 till I find a place for the LORD,
a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”

6 We heard it in Ephrathah,
we came upon it in the fields of Jaar:

7 “Let us go to his dwelling place,
let us worship at his footstool, saying,

8 ‘Arise, LORD, and come to your resting place,
you and the ark of your might.

9 May your priests be clothed with your righteousness;
may your faithful people sing for joy.’”

10 For the sake of your servant David,
do not reject your anointed one.

11 The LORD swore an oath to David,
a sure oath that he will not revoke:
“One of your own descendants
I will place on your throne.

12 If your sons keep my covenant
and the statutes I teach them,
then their sons will sit
on your throne for ever and ever.”

13 For the LORD has chosen Zion,
he has desired it for his dwelling, saying,

14 “This is my resting place for ever and ever;
here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.

15 I will bless her with abundant provisions;
her poor I will satisfy with food.

16 I will clothe her priests with salvation,
and her faithful people will ever sing for joy.

17 “Here I will make a horn grow for David
and set up a lamp for my anointed one.

18 I will clothe his enemies with shame,
but his head will be adorned with a resplendent crown.”

God’s Day of Vengeance and Redemption

1 Who is this coming from Edom,
from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson?
Who is this, robed in splendor,
striding forward in the greatness of his strength?
“It is I, speaking in righteousness,
mighty to save.”

2 Why are your garments red,
like those of one treading the winepress?

3 “I have trodden the winepress alone;
from the nations no one was with me.
I trampled them in my anger
and trod them down in my wrath;
their blood spattered my garments,
and I stained all my clothing.

4 It was for me the day of vengeance;
the year for me to redeem had come.

5 I looked, but there was no one to help,
I was appalled that no one gave support;
so my own arm achieved salvation for me,
and my own wrath sustained me.