Mark (Mrk) 5:1-20

Yeshua and his talmidim arrived at the other side of the lake, in the Gerasenes’ territory. As soon as he disembarked, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the burial caves to meet him. He lived in the burial caves; and no one could keep him tied up, not even with a chain. He had often been chained hand and foot, but he would snap the chains and break the irons off his feet, and no one was strong enough to control him. Night and day he wandered among the graves and through the hills, howling and gashing himself with stones. Seeing Yeshua from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him and screamed at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Yeshua, Son of God Ha‘Elyon? I implore you in God’s name! Don’t torture me!” For Yeshua had already begun saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of this man!” Yeshua asked him, “What’s your name?” “My name is Legion,” he answered, “there are so many of us”; and he kept begging Yeshua not to send them out of that region. Now there was a large herd of pigs feeding near the hill, and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us to the pigs, so we can go into them.” Yeshua gave them permission. They came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering around two thousand, rushed down the hillside into the lake and were drowned. The swineherds fled and told it in the town and in the surrounding country, and the people went to see what had happened. They came to Yeshua and saw the man who had had the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were frightened. Those who had seen it told what had happened to the man controlled by demons and to the pigs; and the people began begging Yeshua to leave their district. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demonized begged him to be allowed to go with him. But Yeshua would not permit it. Instead, he said to him, “Go home to your people, and tell them how much ADONAI in his mercy has done for you.” He went off and began proclaiming in the Ten Towns how much Yeshua had done for him, and everyone was amazed.