1 THEY came to the other side of the lake, to the land of the Gerasenes.

2 When he got out of the boat, immediately there came out of the tombs to meet him a man under the power of an impure spirit.

3 This man made his dwelling in the tombs, and nobody could bind him even with a chain,

4 because he had often been bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn apart and the fetters broken in pieces by him, and no one was strong enough to tame him.

5 All night and all day long he was in the tombs and in the mountains, shrieking and cutting himself with stones.

6 When he saw Jesus a long way off, he ran and knelt to him

7 and shouted with a loud voice, "What have I and you to do with each other, Jesus, Son of God most high? I adjure you by God, not to torment me."

8 For Jesus had said to him, "Come out from the man, you impure spirit."

9 Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "Legion is my name, for we are many."

10 Then he begged Jesus earnestly not to send them out of the country.

11 There was on the mountain-side a great herd of swine feeding,

12 and the demons begged him, "Send us to the swine and let us go into them."

13 He consented. The impure spirits came out of the man and entered into the swine. Then the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned in the lake.

14 At this, those who were feeding them fled and told it in the city and in the fields, and people came to see what had happened.