Mark 5:1-20

New Testament for Everyone

The healing of the demoniac

5 So they came over the sea to the land of the Gerasenes. ² When they got out of the boat, they were suddenly confronted by a man with an unclean spirit. ³ He was emerging from a graveyard, which was where he lived. Nobody had been able to tie him up, not even with a chain; ⁴ he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he used to tear up the chains and snap the shackles. No one had the strength to tame him. ⁵ On and on, night and day, he used to shout out in the graveyard and on the hillside, and slash himself with stones.

⁶ When he saw Jesus a long way away, he ran and threw himself down in front of him.

⁷ “Why you and me, Jesus?” he shouted at the top of his voice. “Why you and me, son of the High God? By God, stop torturing me!”— ⁸ this last, because Jesus was saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of him!”

⁹ “What’s your name?” Jesus asked him.

“Legion,” he replied. “That’s my name—there are lots of us!” ¹⁰ And he implored Jesus not to send them out of the country.

¹¹ It so happened that right there, near the hillside, was a sizable herd of pigs. They were grazing.

¹² “Send us to the pigs,” begged the spirits, “so that we can enter them.”

¹³ So Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd rushed down the steep slope into the sea—about two thousand of them!—and were drowned.

¹⁴ The herdsmen fled. They told it in the town, they told it in the countryside, and people came to see what had happened. ¹⁵ They came to Jesus; and there they saw the man who had been demon-possessed, who had had the “legion,” seated, clothed and stone-cold sober. They were afraid. ¹⁶ The people who had seen it all told them what had happened to the man—and to the pigs. ¹⁷ And they began to beg Jesus to leave their district.

¹⁸ Jesus was getting back into the boat, when the man asked if he could go with him. ¹⁹ Jesus wouldn’t let him.

“Go back home,” he said. “Go to your people and tell them what the Lord has done for you. Tell them how he had pity on you.”

²⁰ He went off, and began to announce in the Ten Towns what Jesus had done for him. Everyone was astonished.