5:16a

Crowds: The Greek word is singular and refers in general to a large number of people. A large number of people gathered from the towns around Jerusalem. Here are some other ways to translate this:

A great number of people (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
A lot of people (Contemporary English Version)

gathered: The Greek tense indicates an ongoing action. More people gathered each day (and probably went home later). For example:

were gathering ⌊each day⌋
-or-
were coming

the towns around Jerusalem: The word around probably indicates that these towns were as much as one or more days walk away.

towns: The Greek word here probably refers any size town. Some languages would use “village” for the general word for this meaning. Other languages would use “city” for the general word.

5:16b

those tormented by unclean spirits: This clause is passive. Some languages must translate it as an active clause. For example:

those whom evil spirits tormented

tormented by unclean spirits: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as tormented indicates an ongoing action at this time. For example:

who were being tormented by evil spirits
-or-
whom evil spirits were tormenting

tormented: This word refers to causing physical or mental pain or annoying someone. Here are some other ways to translate this:

troubled (God’s Word)
-or-
disturbed (New American Bible, Revised Edition)
-or-
harassed (Revised English Bible)
-or-
were being caused pain

unclean spirits: The spirits are unclean in the sense that they have rebelled against God and do evil things. Consider how to translate that meaning in your language.

spirits: This refers to beings who do not have a body. Here it does not refer to the spirits of dead people.

5:16c

all of them were healed: The Greek tense indicates an ongoing action at that time. God was healing people, probably every day. It does not imply that each healing took a long time. For example:

They were all being healed (NET Bible)
-or-
who were all being healed (LEB)

The clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause. For example:

⌊God⌋ was healing all of them

This clause refers to both God making the sick people well and God removing the evil spirits from people. In some languages a separate clause must be used to refer to making well the people with evil spirits. For example:

all of them were healed and the evil spirits were removed/cast-away

© 2001, 2021 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.