Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.
Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. Luke says (Luke 8:29) that "often times it (the unclean spirit) had caught him;" and after mentioning how they had vainly tried to bind him with chains and fetters, because "he brake the bands," he adds, "and was driven of the devil (or 'demon') into the wilderness." The dark tyrant-power by which he was held clothed him with superhuman strength, and made him scorn restraint. Matthew (Matthew 8:28) says he was "exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way." He was the terror of the whole locality.