Matthew 8:31 (GNV)

Passage

And the deuils besought him, saying, If thou cast vs out, suffer vs to goe into the heard of swine.

Nearby Context

Matthew 8:29 And beholde, they cryed out, saying, Iesus the sonne of God, what haue we to do with thee? Art thou come hither to tormet vs before ye time?

Matthew 8:30 Nowe there was, afarre off from them, a great heard of swine feeding.

Matthew 8:31 And the deuils besought him, saying, If thou cast vs out, suffer vs to goe into the heard of swine.

Matthew 8:32 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.

Matthew 8:33 Then the heardmen fled: and when they were come into the citie, they tolde all things, and what was become of them that were possessed with the deuils.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "deuils", "besought", "saying", "thou", "cast", "suffer", "heard", and "swine". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "deuils" and "besought", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 30's "Nowe there was afarre off from them..." into verse 32's "And he said vnto them Go So...", so "deuils" 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 "deuils" and "besought" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.