And they besought him
That is, all the devils, the whole legion of them, entreated
Jesus, under whose power, and at whose dispose they were:
that he would not command them to go out into the
deep;
meaning, not the deep waters of the sea, for thither they ran the
swine at their own request; but the bottomless pit of hell, where
others of these spirits lay in chains of darkness; and so the
Ethiopic version renders it, "into hell": they desired, that when
they went out of this man, they might not be ordered thither, or
remanded to their former prison; for they knew that if he gave
the word of command, they must obey; but that they might be
suffered to continue in that country, and range about on earth,
or be any where, rather than in hell.