And he said to them, “Go”: in order to place greater emphasis on the command of Jesus, Good News Translation inverts the order: “ ‘Go,’ Jesus told them.” However, this will not be possible in all languages, and translators should use whatever order is most natural. Some will have to use indirect speech, as in “He told them they should go,” but effort should be made to place the emphasis on the command.
Them, of course, refers to the demons who spoke to him in verse 31, not to the men.
The demons came out, that is, they “left the men” or “went out of the men.” They then went into the pigs, or “entered the pigs,” or “took possession of the pigs.” Translators should use the normal expression for spirit possession in their language.
And behold: see comments on 1.20; 8.2. The expression is here used to focus attention on what happened when the demons went into the pigs. Perhaps this can be brought out by a phrase such as “At once” or “And then.”
The exact relation between the verbs rushed and perished is not clear. In Greek rushed is singular whereas perished is plural. It is possible that the herd is the subject of each verb, and most translations imply that this is the case. But is also quite possible that the function of the plural is to indicate that both the pigs and the demons were drowned. This would then affirm that at the command of Jesus the demons met their destruction before the day of the final judgment.
This can possibly be emphasized with a rendering such as “The whole herd of pigs rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and the pigs and demons were drowned.” But even without this being explicit, the implication is that the demons were destroyed. It is therefore probably enough to say that the herd was drowned.
As before, sea can be “lake.”
Bank is often translated as “cliff,” since it is rivers that have banks, not lakes. “Hillside” is also acceptable.
Good News Translation translates perished in the waters as “was drowned.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .