Charles Ellicott Commentary 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 8:32 (ASV)

He said to them, "Go." — People have sometimes asked in scorn why this command was given—why permission was granted for a destructive act that seemed both needless and fruitless.

The so-called rationalistic explanation—that the demon-possessed men drove the swine down the cliff in a final frenzy—is no solution to the difficulty. Even if that hypothesis were plausible on other grounds, it is clear that our Lord’s words sanctioned what they did.

We are at least on the right track in suggesting that only in this way could the man be delivered from the inextricable confusion between his own identity and that of the unclean spirits. Not until he saw the demonic forces that had oppressed him transferred to the bodies of other creatures, and saw them producing the same effects on the animals that they had produced on him, could he truly believe in his own deliverance.

Those who rightly measure the worth of a human soul restored to himself, to his fellow men, and to God will not consider the destruction of animal life too high a price to pay for his restoration.

Other secondary purposes have also been suggested with varying degrees of plausibility. For example, it may have been a penalty for those who kept the unclean animals in violation of the Law. Or, it may have taught people that indulging the "swinish nature" in themselves makes them vulnerable to darker and more demonic passions.

Down a steep place —This literally means down the cliff.