Matthew 8:34 KJV
And¹, behold,
the² whole³ city⁴ came out⁵ to⁶ meet⁷ Jesus⁸:
and⁹ when they saw¹⁰ him¹¹,
they besought [him]¹² that he would depart¹³
out of their¹⁴ coasts¹⁵.
¹) Then – καὶ (kai) – Conjunction – And, even, also, namely.
²) The – ἡ (hē) – Article – Nominative Feminine Singular – The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.
³) Whole – πᾶσα (pasa) – Adjective – Nominative Feminine Singular – All, the whole, every kind of. Including all the forms of declension; apparently a primary word; all, any, every, the whole.
⁴) Town – πόλις (polis) – Noun – Nominative Feminine Singular – A city, the inhabitants of a city. Probably from the same as polemos, or perhaps from polus; a town.
⁵) Went out – ἐξῆλθεν (exēlthen) – Verb – Aorist Indicative Active – 3rd Person Singular – To go out, come out. From ek and erchomai; to issue.
⁶) To – εἰς (eis) – Preposition – A primary preposition; to or into, of place, time, or purpose; also in adverbial phrases.
⁷) Meet – ὑπάντησιν (hypantēsin) – Noun – Accusative Feminine Singular – A meeting. From hupantao; an encounter or concurrence.
⁸) Jesus – Ἰησοῦ (Iēsou) – Noun – Dative Masculine Singular – Of Hebrew origin; Jesus, the name of our Lord and two other Israelites.
⁹) And – καὶ (kai) – Conjunction – And, even, also, namely.
¹⁰) When they saw – ἰδόντες (idontes) – Verb – Aorist Participle Active – Nominative Masculine Plural – Properly, to stare at, i.e. to discern clearly; by extension, to attend to; by Hebraism, to experience; passively, to appear.
¹¹) Him – αὐτὸν (auton) – Personal / Possessive Pronoun – Accusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular – He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.
¹²) They begged [Him] – παρεκάλεσαν (parekalesan) – Verb – Aorist Indicative Active – 3rd Person Plural – From para and kaleo; to call near, i.e. Invite, invoke.
¹³) To leave – μεταβῇ (metabē) – Verb – Aorist Subjunctive Active – 3rd Person Singular – To change my place (abode), leave, depart, remove, pass over. From meta and the base of basis; to change place.
¹⁴) Their – αὐτῶν (autōn) – Personal / Possessive Pronoun – Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural – He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.
¹⁵) Region – ὁρίων (horiōn) – Noun – Genitive Neuter Plural – Neuter of a derivative of an apparently primary horos; a boundary-line, i.e. a frontier
Other translations
Berean Literal Bible
And behold, all the city went out to meet Jesus. And having seen Him, they begged Him that He would depart from their region.
New American Standard Bible
And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they pleaded with Him to leave their region.
Amplified Bible
And the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and as soon as they saw Him, they begged Him to leave their region.
Study
The whole city
I.e., the population of Gadara or Gerasa (more probably the former), according to the reading which we adopt in Matthew 8:28.
Mark and Luke add, that they found the demoniac “clothed, and in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus,” in the clinging gratitude of faith.
The narrative half suggests the thought that the garment which he now wore as the outward sign of a new self-reverence had been supplied by the pity of the disciples.
Besought him that he would depart.
It was characteristic of the wild, half-heathen population that they were led to look on the Prophet who had wrought so great a work as a Destroyer rather than a Saviour, and therefore shrank from His presence among them.
The Gadarenes, in return for Christ’s works of love, majesty, and mercy, besought Him to depart. They eared more for the swine which the devils had destroyed, than for the poor man, Christ had restored.
Not so with the demoniac.
He felt, with a faith which was real, though weak, as if he were only safe while close to his Deliverer. He followed Him to the boat, and as they were in the act of embarking, he prayed that he might be with Him (Mark 5:18).
But this was not the discipline which was needed for his spiritual health.
Retirement, renewed fellowship with his kindred in his own house, the quiet witness borne there that the Lord had had compassion on him; this was better for him than the work of a more avowed discipleship.
And so he went his way “proclaiming,” or “preaching,” what Jesus had done for him; a true evangelist to a people whose panic terror showed that they were as yet in darkness and the shadow of death.
Illustrations
Welcoming the Lord
If you hear when the king is on his road to your town, you raise your bells to ring him in.
The birds they rise early in the morning, and salute the rising sun with their sweet songs.
In a similar way we should strike up our harps in praising God at the appearance of His mercy.
Rejecting salvation
To me it is specially appalling that a man should perish through wilfully rejecting the Divine salvation.
- A drowning man throwing away the life-belt,
- a poisoned man pouring the antidote upon the floor,
- a wounded man tearing open his wounds,
Any one of these is a sad sight;
But what shall we say of a soul putting from it the Redeemer and choosing its own destruction? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Devotional
The Savior has come to destroy the works of Satan.
After Satan’s reign was broken by the Saviour, the Christ allowed the demons to enter the herd of swine, which then drowned in the lake.
The swineherds told the town what had happened.
They had lost all their swine.
Then the whole city came in unison with a prayer, with a request.
They unanimously asked if Christ would leave their borders.
- They only had eyes for the temporary loss of their swine.
- They ignored the great miracle and rich benevolence which the Savior had bestowed upon that man and upon the whole region.
- They would rather have a land full of evil spirits and swine without Christ, than the Christ without those evil spirits and swine.
- They did not suffer from sin and the devil, but they did suffer from their temporary loss.
Does it become clear to you?
It is only grace to forsake all and follow Christ.
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