Matthew 8:31 (ASV)

Passage

And the demons besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine.

Nearby Context

Matthew 8:29 And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

Matthew 8:30 Now there was afar off from them a herd of many swine feeding.

Matthew 8:31 And the demons besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine.

Matthew 8:32 And he said unto them, Go. And they came out, and went into the swine: and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep into the sea, and perished in the waters.

Matthew 8:33 And they that fed them fled, and went away into the city, and told everything, and what was befallen to them that were possessed with demons.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "demons", "besought", "saying", "thou", "cast", "send", "away", and "herd". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "demons" and "besought", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 30's "Now there was afar off from them..." into verse 32's "And he said unto them Go And...", so "demons" and "besought" belong inside that flow. In Matthew context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "demons" and "besought" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.