Mark 5:2-20

2As soon as he got out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs and met him.

3He lived in the tombs, and no one was able to restrain him anymore — not even with a chain  —

4because he often had been bound with shackles and chains, but had torn the chains apart and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him.

5Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.

6When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and knelt down before him.

7And he cried out with a loud voice, “What do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you before God, don’t torment me!”

8For he had told him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”

9“What is your name?” he asked him. “My name is Legion,” he answered him, “because we are many.”

10And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the region.

11A large herd of pigs was there, feeding on the hillside.

12The demons begged him, “Send us to the pigs, so that we may enter them.”

13So he gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned there.

14The men who tended them ran off and reported it in the town and the countryside, and people went to see what had happened.

15They came to Jesus and saw the man who had been demon-possessed, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.

16Those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and told about the pigs.

17Then they began to beg him to leave their region.

18As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged him earnestly that he might remain with him.

19Jesus did not let him but told him, “Go home to your own people, and report to them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.”

20So he went out and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and they were all amazed.