Mark 5:2-20

2As Jesus stepped out of the boat, a man came out of the tombs and met him. The man was controlled by an evil spirit

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

4He had often been chained hand and foot. However, he snapped the chains off his hands and broke the chains from his feet. No one could control him.

5Night and day he was among the tombs and on the mountainsides screaming and cutting himself with stones.

6The man saw Jesus at a distance. So he ran ⌞to Jesus⌟, bowed down in front of him,

7and shouted, “Why are you bothering me now, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me.”

8He shouted this because Jesus said, “You evil spirit, come out of the man.”

9Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He told Jesus, “My name is Legion [Six Thousand], because there are many of us.”

10He begged Jesus not to send them out of the territory.

11A large herd of pigs was feeding on a mountainside nearby.

12The demons begged him, “Send us into the pigs! Let us enter them!”

13Jesus let them do this. The evil spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand pigs rushed down the cliff into the sea and drowned.

14Those who took care of the pigs ran away. In the city and countryside they reported everything that had happened. So the people came to see what had happened.

15They came to Jesus and saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons. The man was sitting there dressed and in his right mind. The people were frightened.

16Those who saw this told what had happened to the demon-possessed man and the pigs.

17Then the people began to beg Jesus to leave their territory.

18As Jesus stepped into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged him, “Let me stay with you.”

19But Jesus would not allow it. Instead, he told the man, “Go home to your family, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been to you.”

20So the man left. He began to tell how much Jesus had done for him in the Ten Cities. Everyone was amazed.