When they that fed them saw what was done,.... That the devils went out of the man possessed by them, and entered into the herd of swine, which becoming mad therewith, ran furiously down the precipice into the sea, and were drowned: they fled; as persons affrighted, at these uncommon and surprising events, and as afraid to see their owners: and went and told it in the city; that is, of Gadara, or some other city near at hand; the Syriac and Ethiopic versions read, "in the cities"; in all the cities round about, in that country: and in the country, or "fields", in the villages adjacent, and in the houses which were scattered about in the fields for conveniency, for rural business.