9:37-42 How deplorable the case of this child! He was under the power of an evil spirit. Disease of that nature are more frightful than such as arise merely from natural causes. What mischief Satan does where he gets possession! But happy those that have access to Christ! He can do that for us which his disciples cannot. A word from Christ healed the child; and when our children recover from sickness, it is comfortable to receive them as healed by the hand of Christ.And, lo, a spirit taketh him,.... An evil spirit, the devil, as in Luke 9:42 seizes and possesses him at once,

and he suddenly crieth out; in a most terrible manner, giving dreadful shrieks, as soon as he perceives that he is seized by the demon:

and it teareth him, that he foameth again; throws him into convulsions, so that he foams at the mouth: and so we read (t) of a son of a certain Jew, that

"a certain spirit passed before him and hurt him, convulsed his mouth, and his eyes, and his hands were convulsed, and he could not speak.''

And bruising him; by dashing him against the wall, or throwing him to the ground:

hardly departeth from him; is very loath to leave him, even after he has distressed, convulsed, and bruised him in this dreadful manner, such was his cruelty and malice; See Gill on Matthew 17:15, Mark 9:18.

(t) Zohar in Lev. fol. 21. 4.