Mark 5:2-20

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

3He lived among the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain.

4For his hands and feet had often been bound with chains and shackles, but he had torn the chains apart and broken the shackles in pieces. No one was strong enough to subdue him.

5Each night and every day among the tombs and in the mountains, he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

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

7Then he cried out with a loud voice, “Leave me alone, Jesus, Son of the Most High God! I implore you by God – do not torment me!”

8(For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of that man, you unclean spirit!”)

9Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”

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

11There on the hillside, a great herd of pigs was feeding.

12And the demonic spirits begged him, “Send us into the pigs. Let us enter them.”

13Jesus gave them permission. So the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs. Then the herd rushed down the steep slope into the lake, and about two thousand were drowned in the lake.

14Now the herdsmen ran off and spread the news in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened.

15They came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man sitting there, clothed and in his right mind – the one who had the “Legion” – and they were afraid.

16Those who had seen what had happened to the demon-possessed man reported it, and they also told about the pigs.

17Then they asked Jesus to leave their region.

18As he was getting into the boat the man who had been demon-possessed asked if he could go with him.

19But Jesus did not permit him to do so. Instead, he said to him, “Go to your home and to your people and tell them what the Lord has done for you, that he had mercy on you.”

20So he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him, and all were amazed.