Chapter 5

¹So they reached the other side of the sea, and landed in the region of Gerasa. ²As soon as he got out of the boat, a man possessed by a foul spirit came out of the burial places near by to meet him. ³This man lived among the tombs, and no one could any longer secure him even with a chain, ⁴for he had often been fastened with fetters and chains and had snapped the chains and broken the fetters; and there was no one strong enough to master him, ⁵and night and day he was always shrieking among the tombs and on the hills and cutting himself with stones. ⁶And catching sight of Jesus in the distance he ran up and made obeisance to him ⁷and screamed out,

“What do you want of me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? In God’s name, I implore you, do not torture me.” ⁸For he was saying to him,

“You foul spirit, come out of this man.”

⁹He asked him,

“What is your name?”

He said,

“My name is Legion, for there are many of us.”

¹⁰And they begged him earnestly not to send them out of that country.

¹¹Now there was a great drove of pigs feeding there on the hillside. ¹²And they implored him,

“Send us among the pigs, let us go into them.”

¹³So he gave them permission. And the foul spirits came out and went into the pigs, and the drove of about two thousand rushed over the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned. ¹⁴And the men who tended them ran away and spread the news in the town and in the country around, and the people came to see what had happened. ¹⁵When they came to Jesus and found the demoniac sitting quietly with his clothes on and in his right mind—the same man who had been possessed by Legion—they were frightened. ¹⁶And those who had seen it told them what had happened to the demoniac, and all about the pigs. ¹⁷And they began to beg him to leave their district. ¹⁸As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed begged to be allowed to go with him. ¹⁹And he would not permit it, but said to him,

“Go home to your own people, and tell them all the Lord has done for you and how he took pity on you.” ²⁰And he went off and began to tell everybody in the Ten Towns all Jesus had done for him; and they were all astonished.

²¹When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him as he stood on the shore. ²²And a man named Jairus, the leader of a synagogue, came up and seeing him threw himself at his feet, ²³and appealed to him, saying,

“My little daughter is at the point of death. Come, lay your hands on her, so that she may get well and live!”

²⁴So he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and pressed around him. ²⁵And a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, ²⁶and had had a great deal of treatment from various doctors and had spent all that she had and had not been benefited at all but had actually grown worse, ²⁷had heard about Jesus. And she came up in the crowd behind him and touched his coat, ²⁸for she said,

“If I can only touch his clothes, I shall get well.”

²⁹The hemorrhage stopped at once, and she felt in her body that she was cured. ³⁰Jesus instantly perceived that healing power had passed from him, and he turned around in the crowd and said,

“Who touched my clothes?”

³¹His disciples said to him,

“You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

³²But he still looked around to see the person who had done it. ³³The woman, knowing what had happened to her, came forward frightened and trembling, and threw herself down at his feet and told him the whole truth. ³⁴And he said to her,

“My daughter, it is your faith that has cured you. Go in peace and be free from your disease.”

³⁵Even as he spoke people came from the house of the leader of the synagogue and said,

“Your daughter is dead. Why should you trouble the Master any further?”

³⁶But Jesus paid no attention to what they said, but said to the leader of the synagogue,

“Do not be afraid, just have faith.”

³⁷He let no one go with him but Peter, James, and James’s brother John. ³⁸They came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, and there he found everything in confusion, and people weeping and wailing. ³⁹And he went into the house and said to them,

“What is the meaning of all this confusion and crying? The child is not dead, she is asleep.” ⁴⁰And they laughed at him. But he drove them all out, and took the child’s father and mother and the men who were with him and went into the room where the child was lying. ⁴¹And he grasped her hand and said to her,

“Taleitha, koum!”—that is to say, “Little girl, I tell you, get up!”

⁴²And the little girl immediately got up and walked about, for she was twelve years old. The moment they saw it they were utterly amazed. ⁴³And he strictly forbade them to let anyone know of it, and told them to give her something to eat.