Mark 5:17 Commentary - Whedon's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

17. They… pray him to depart They considered the salvation of the man as a poor compensation for the loss of their pigs. A man who drives away devils must be himself driven away. So do men hug the disease and hate the physician. Skeptics at the present day agree with the Gadarenes and repudiate Jesus, because the demons destroyed the swine. They began to pray We have here three prayers from three very different sources. The devils pray, and their prayers are granted, but to their own final discomfiture. The Gadarenes pray, and their prayer too is granted; for the Lord departs and leaves them to their own abandonment. The delivered man prays to be with Christ; his prayer is not heard, but a better lot is assigned, a lot of home duty, which if he will fulfil, he shall be with his Lord forever.