Mark 5:1-13 ▼

1 They arrived at the other side of the sea in the territory of the Gerasenes.

2 Just as Jesus stepped out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs and met him.

3 He lived among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any longer, not even with a chain.

4 He had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but had snapped the chains apart and broken the shackles in pieces. No one could tame him.

5 He kept screaming night and day among the tombs and on the mountainsides, and kept cutting himself with stones.

6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell down in front of him,

7 screaming in a loud voice, |What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you in the name of God never to torment me!|

8 Jesus had been saying to him, |Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!|

9 Then Jesus asked him, |What's your name?| He told him, |My name is Legion, because there are many of us.|

10 He kept pleading with Jesus not to send them out of that region.

11 Now a large herd of pigs was grazing on a hillside nearby.

12 So the demons begged him, |Send us among the pigs, so that we can go into them!|

13 So he let them do this. The unclean spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs, and the herd of about 2,000 rushed down the cliff into the sea and drowned there.