He said to them, “Go!” They came out, and went into the herd of pigs: and behold, the whole herd of pigs rushed down the cliff into the sea, and died in the water.
Parallel Translations
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He said to them, “Go!” They came out, and went into the herd of pigs: and behold, the whole herd of pigs rushed down the cliff into the sea, and died in the water.
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And he sayd vnto the: go youre wayes. Then wet they out and departed into the heerd of swyne And beholde the whoale heerd of swyne was caryed with violence hedlinge in to the see and perisshed in the water.
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And he said vnto them, Go. So they went out and departed into the heard of swine: and beholde, the whole heard of swine ranne headlong into the sea, and died in the water.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Matthew 8:32 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Mark 5:13 At once Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea.
- Revelation 20:7 And after the thousand years, Satan will be released from his prison,
- 1 Kings 22:22 Yahweh said to him, ‘How?’ He said, ‘I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ He said, ‘You will entice him, and will also prevail. Go out and do so.’
- Luke 8:33 The demons came out of the man, and entered into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned.
- Acts 2:23 him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed;
- Acts 4:28 to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen.
- Job 1:10-19 Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.” Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don’t stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh. It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, that there came a messenger to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was still speaking, there also came another, and said, “The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.”
- Job 2:3-8 Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.” Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.” Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life.” So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head. He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 32 And he said unto them, Go. And when…
32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.
Ver. 32. And he said unto them, Go] 1. To show his sovereignty over the creatures. He is the great proprietary of all, and may do with his own as he wisheth. 2. To punish their sensuality in feeding upon swine’s flesh, against the express letter of the law. Ex uno sue quinquaginta prope sapores excogitantur, saith Pliny. And there was a jolly pope (some kin, belike, to Pope Sergius, surnamed Os porci, the mouth of a pig) that being, for his gout, forbidden swine’s flesh by his physician, cried out to his steward, Bring me my pork, al dispito di dio, in despite of God. 3. To try whether was dearer to these filthy Gergesites, their swine, or their souls. They showed themselves to be of Cardinal Bourbon’s mind, who would not part with his part in Paris, for his part in Paradise.
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They went into the herd of swine] That thereby Satan might win upon the souls of the citizens (wedded and wedged to their worldly substance), and he failed not in his purpose. A cunning fetch of an old quadruplator. Be not ignorant of his wiles. Divorce the world from the devil, and he can do us no hurt.
Ran violently down a steep place into the sea] Cornelius Agrippa, the magician, being at point of death, called unto him a dog (a familiar devil) that went about with him, and said, Abi a me perdita bestia quae me perdidisti, Get thee gone, thou cursed creature, thou hast undone me. Whereupon the dog presently departed, and cast himself headlong into the water.
And perished in the waters] So will detestable drunkards in the bottomless pit; those that, as swine their bellies, so they break their heads with filthy quaffing. These shall have a cup of fire and brimstone poured down their throats, Psa 11:6, and not obtain one drop of water to cool their flaming tongues. For what reason? Drunkenness, saith one, is a vice so vile, so base, so beastly, as that it transforms the soul, deforms the body, bereaves the brain, betrays the strength, defiles the affection, and metamorphoseth the whole man; making the understanding ignorant, the strong staggering, the trusty trothless, the virtuous vicious, and the precisest person a panderer to the profanest sin. (Huge de Sancto Vict.)
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Mark gives us much the same account, Mar 5:13,…
Mark gives us much the same account, Mar 5:13, only adding, they were about two thousand. Luke differeth not, only what Matthew calls a sea Luke calls a lake; but the Jews called all great gatherings together of waters seas. The devil is naturally so fond of doing mischief, that he will rather play at a small game than stand out. This way of executing his malice, upon the beasts, we have often had experience of in the practice of witchcraft. And it may teach husbandmen, and those that trade in much cattle, to whom they are beholden for the preservation of their cattle, and how rightly God is styled, he that preserveth both man and beast; and what need they have to keep up daily prayer in their families, and to live so as they may not make God their enemy, who hath legions of devils, as well as many legions of less hurtful creatures, to revenge his quarrels.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Although Christ seldom wrought any destructive miracle, and although…
Although Christ seldom wrought any destructive miracle, and although he certainly foresaw that the swine would perish in the waters; yet that the people might see how great the power and malice of the devil would be, if not restrained by Christ, he permitted him to ever into the swine: Christ said unto them, Go; and how glad was Satan of this permission to enter into the swine, in order to their destruction.
Let it teach us our duty, by prayer to commit ourselves, and all that we have, morning and evening, into the hands of God’s care; all that we have in the house, and all that we have in the field, that it may be preserved from the power and malice of evil spirits.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And they that kept them fled,.... The hog herds,…
And they that kept them fled,.... The hog herds, men of very low life, and whose employment was very infamous and reproachful, as has been observed. These, amazed at what they had seen, distressed with the loss of the swine, and so of their employment, and frightened also lest they should incur the blame and displeasure of their masters, ran away in great haste, fear, and astonishment;
and went their way into the city; either of Gergesa, or Gadara. Mark and Luke say, they "went and told it in the city, and in the country": in their fright and distress, some ran one way, and some another; some went into the city, others into the country, and so spread the affair far and near, and the fame of Christ, which was designed by this miracle;
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and told everything they saw and heard; how the devils entered into the swine, and they ran headlong into the sea, and were drowned: this they told first, as being done last, and with which they were most affected, and what chiefly concerned their employers; and after they had told every circumstance of the affair, next they gave a narrative of
what was befallen to the possessed of the devils, and which was the occasion of the loss of their swine; how subject the devils, that were in them, were to Christ; how easily he dispossessed them by a word of command; how they entreated they might have leave to go into the herd of swine, which was granted; and how perfectly whole, and in health, both in body and mind, the men were.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 32. They went into the herd of swine]…
Verse 32. They went into the herd of swine] Instead of την αγελην των χοιρων, the herd of swine, Griesbach reads τους χοιρους, the swine, on the authority of many MSS. and versions.
The whole herd of swine] των χοιρων, of swine, is omitted by many MSS. and versions. See Griesbach, and See Clarke on Lu 8:20, c.
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Ran violently down a steep place, c.] The prayer of these demons is heard and answered! Strange! But let it be noted, that God only hears demons and certain sinners when their prayer is the echo of his own justice. Here is an emblem of the final impenitence and ruin into which the swinish sinners, the habitually unpure, more commonly fall than other sinners. Christ permits the demons to do that in the swine which he did not permit them to do in the possessed, on purpose to show us what rage they would exercise on us if left to their liberty and malice. Many are the Divine favours which we do not consider, or know only in general. "But the owners of the swine lost their property." Yes and learn from this of how small value temporal riches, are in the estimation of God. He suffers them to be lost, sometimes to disengage us from them through mercy sometimes out of justice, to punish us for having acquired or preserved them either by covetousness or injustice.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Many reasons might be brought why our Saviour suffered…
Many reasons might be brought why our Saviour suffered the devils to enter into the swine: 1. To shew that the devils had no power even over swine without his permission. 2. That such as were freed from their power, might acknowledge the greatness of the favour done them, by seeing from how great a multitude they were liberated. 3. To punish those Jewish citizens, who fed upon swine’s flesh contrary to their law. And, 4. To shew how willingly the devils dwell in the hearts of those who are addicted to the voluptuous and carnal life, aptly designated by the swine. (Menochius) --- St. John Chrysostom says that our Saviour permitted the devils to enter the swine, not for their own sakes, but for our instruction. 1. That we might know how very desirous the enemy of our salvation is to bring upon us the greatest evils. 2. That the devil has not any power, even over swine, without the permission of God. And, 3. That these cruel fiends would, if the Almighty allowed them, inflict still more grievous torments on their unhappy slaves. (Hom. xxix.) Jesus Christ here confutes the Sadducean doctrine, which denies the existence of spirits, good or bad. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 32. a steep place] Translate, the steep place. The…
32. a steep place] Translate, the steep place. The slope of Gergesa, familiar to Matthew and to the readers of his Gospel.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (32) He said unto them, Go.—Men have asked sometimes,…
(32) He said unto them, Go.—Men have asked sometimes, in scorn, why the word was spoken; why permission was given for a destructive work which seemed alike needless and fruitless. The so-called rationalistic explanation, that the demoniacs drove the swine down the cliff in a last paroxysm of frenzy, is no solution of the difficulty, for, even if that hypothesis were on other grounds tenable, it is clear that our Lord’s words sanctioned what they did. We are at least on the right track in suggesting that only in some such way could the man be delivered from the inextricable confusion between himself and the unclean spirits in which he had been involved. Not till he saw the demoniac forces that had oppressed him transferred to the bodies of other creatures, and working on them the effects which they had wrought on him, could he believe in his own deliverance. Those who measure rightly the worth of a human spirit thus restored to itself, to its fellow-men, and to God, will not think that the destruction of brute life was too dear a price to pay for its restoration. Other subordinate ends—such, e.g., as that it was a penalty on those who kept the unclean beasts for their violation of the Law, or that it taught men that it was through their indulgence of the swinish nature in themselves that they became subject to the darker and more demoniac passions—have been suggested with more or less plausibility.
Down a steep place.—Literally, down the cliff.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 32, 33. And he said unto them, Go.…
Vers. 32, 33. And he said unto them, Go. As they asked; for he was not yet come to send them to their final home. He would not employ his inherent Divine power even against the kingdom of Satan, or forcibly disturb the conditions under which evil existed in the world. Notice further:
(1) That as regards the right to destroy the swine when they were the property of others, our Lord in no way destroyed them himself, but only did not interfere with the powers of the evil spirits in giving them permission to work out their own purposes. It is possible, too, though far from certain, that the owners of the swine were acting illegally in owning them; (though even then our Lord was not constituted as judge, Luk_12:14) but this supposes first that they were Jews, and secondly that it was illegal for Jews to keep swine, of which suppositions not even the latter can be clearly proved either by Scripture or by early forms of tradition.
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(2) The destruction of the swine might well be beneficial to the complete recovery of the men.
(3) It would fully arouse the Gerasenes, and bring home to them the holiness of the Lord from whom evil spirits fled, and the call to personal holiness that such a Presence demanded. The result of their being thus amused lay with themselves. (Joh_3:19 2Co_2:16)
(4) It would also prove an important element in attracting the attention both of the neighbouring district (e.g. Gadam, ver. 28; cf. parallel passage, Mar_5:20) and of all places to which the news would come. And when they were come out, they (Revised Version, and they came out and) went into the herd of (Revised Version omits "herd of") swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine (Revised Version omits "of swine") ran violently (Revised Version, rushed; emphatic; in the Greek it follows "behold") down a steep place (Revised Version, down the steep, kata tou krhmnou); tide supra, ver. 28, note. Into the sea, and perished in the waters. And they that kept them (fed them, revised version; oi de boskontev . Those whose duty it was to drive the swine from place to place, that they might find food. Observe that the swine were "far" (ver. 30) from Jesus and the demoniacs, so that the swineherds need not have passed near the demoniacs" dwelling. Also they were on the mountain, and the demoniacs dwelt, as it seems, near the road at the bottom (ver. 28, end). Fled. Doubtless in terror. And went their ways; and went away (Revised Version); apelyontev . "Ways" is in this passage probably the old genitive singular (cf. "Bible Word Book," s.v.). Into the city. Khersa (ver. 28, note). The addition in the parallel passages of "and in the country (aphggeilan eiv thn, polin kai eiv touv) " seems to primarily refer to the news being carried also to those men of the city who were at their daily labour outside it. And told everything, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils; Revised Version, them that were possessed with devils. Matthew repeats the plural (ver. 28, note). Observe: business first, philanthropy second.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 32. Go. A permission, not a command. Rushed ……
32. Go. A permission, not a command. Rushed … into the sea. Maddened, the swine rushed down the steep declivity into the sea. If we knew all the facts we would see more fully the righteousness of the Lord's permission. Perhaps the loss of the swine was a punishment. Perhaps it was to show that evil works its own destruction.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 8:32 Jesus’ word had sufficient authority to expel demons.…
8:32 Jesus’ word had sufficient authority to expel demons. • drowned: Jesus had begun to defeat the enemy (12:28; Luke 10:17-20; Rom 16:20; Col 2:15).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.