Matthew Chapter 8 verse 30 Holy Bible
Now there was afar off from them a herd of many swine feeding.
read chapter 8 in ASV
Now there was, some distance away, a great herd of pigs taking their food.
read chapter 8 in BBE
Now there was, a great way off from them, a herd of many swine feeding;
read chapter 8 in DARBY
And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.
read chapter 8 in KJV
read chapter 8 in WBT
Now there was a herd of many pigs feeding far away from them.
read chapter 8 in WEB
And there was far off from them a herd of many swine feeding,
read chapter 8 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerses 30, 31. - And there was a good way off from them a herd of many swine feeding. So (and, Revised Version) the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out (Matthew only), suffer us to go away (send us away, Revised Version). This is distinguished from ver. 29 as expressly the utterance of the evil spirits. In the true text there is no thought of permission, but only of command (ἀπόστειλον). They recognize his mastery. Into the herd of swine; and not into the place of torment - "the abyss" of the parallel passage, Luke 8:31. If he did not send them there, they might hope for a long respite, and one perhaps spent in various tenements. Further notice: (1) The unclean chose the unclean (2) Though we cannot attribute to the evil spirits absolute foreknowledge of what would happen in this case, their past experience may have enabled them to feel sure that they would have their love of destroying fully gratified. (3) it is also not impossible that they may have considered that their entering the swine would be likely to prejudice the Gerasenes against Jesus.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(30) An herd of many swine.--We are surprised at first to find swine kept in a country where their flesh could not be an article of food. But though the Jews did not eat pork, Roman soldiers did, and the swine may have been kept to supply the wants of the legion with which the man was familiar. The pun of Augustus as to Herod's swine and son (see Note on Matthew 2:16) seems to imply that the king kept them on his estates for some such purpose.