Luke 8:26-34

The Voice

²⁶ When they get to the other side of the lake, in the Gerasene country opposite Galilee, ²⁷ a man from the city is waiting for Jesus when He steps out of the boat. The man is full of demonic spirits. He’s been running around for a long time stark naked, and he’s homeless, sleeping among the dead in a cemetery. ^28-29 This man has on many occasions been tied up and chained and kept under guard, but each time he has broken free and the demonic power has driven him back into remote places away from human contact. Jesus commands the demonic force to leave him. The man looks at Jesus and starts screaming. He falls down in front of Jesus.

He says this because an army of demons is inside of him. ³¹ The demons start begging Jesus not to send them into the bottomless pit. ³² They plead instead to enter into a herd of pigs feeding on a steep hillside near the shore. Jesus gives them permission to do so. ³³ Suddenly the man is liberated from the demons, but the pigs—they stampede, squealing down the hill and into the lake where they drown themselves.

³⁴ The pig owners see all this. They run back to their town and tell everyone in the region about it.