And they that fed them fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. St. Matthew mentions only the city. St. Mark's narrative is more full. No doubt many of these swineherds lived in the country districts; and so the fame of the miracle was spread far and wide.
The swineherds would take care that the owners should understand that it was through no fault or carelessness on their part that the swine had perished; but that the destruction was caused by a power over which they had no control.
And they—i.e. the owners—came to see what it was that had come to pass. Their first care was to see the extent of their loss; and this was soon revealed to them. They must have seen the carcases of the swine floating hither and thither in the now calm and tranquil sea; and when they had thus satisfied themselves as to the facts, "they came to Jesus."
St. Mark here uses the historic present, "they come to Jesus," that they might behold him of whom these great things were told, as well as the man out of whom the evil spirits had gone when they entered into the swine.
They were, of course, concerned to know the magnitude of their loss, and the mode in which it had happened, that they might see whether there were any means by which it might be made up to them.