And behold: see comments at 1.20 and 8.2. Here, phrases such as “At once” or “As soon as they saw Jesus” will be good too.
Cried out (Good News Translation “screamed”) indicates a loud shout (New English Bible “shouted”). Jerusalem Bible has “They stood there shouting….” Notice that in this verse it is the men, not the spirits, shouting at Jesus.
What have you to do with us, O Son of God? is literally “What to us and to you, Son of God?” The construction “What to us and to you” is a Semitic idiom; in the Marcan (5.7) and Lukan (8.28) parallels it appears in the singular (“What to me and to you”). The same expression occurs in the Septuagint, with at least two different meanings. In Judges 11.12 Jephthah’s reply to the Ammonite king means “What is your quarrel with us?” In 2 Samuel 16.10 David’s reply to Abishai and Joab may be rendered “This is none of your business.” In John 2.4, where these same words comprise Jesus’ response to his mother during the wedding feast at Cana, the meaning is “You must not tell me what to do.” Here the meaning is best explained by the question that follows, “Have you come to punish us before the right time?” (Good News Translation).
The question is certainly a hostile one, and the translation should reflect this: “What’s your business with us?” “What are you going to do with (or, to) us?” or “Why are you bothering us?” It can even be translated as something of a warning, as in “Don’t interfere with us.”
In 3.17 God speaks of Jesus as his Son, and in 4.3, 6 the devil identifies Jesus as God’s Son. According to the New Testament, demons also have supernatural insight, and it is on this basis that the demon-possessed men recognize who Jesus really is.
The vocative formula with O as in O Son of God is archaic and unnatural in English as well as in many other languages. Better will be “You who are Son of God” or simply “Son of God.” Whether to put this before or after the question depends on the receptor language.
Have you come here to torment us before the time? reflects Jewish and Christian thought, according to which demons have power to trouble people until the day of God’s final judgment upon them.
Torment may be “punish” (Good News Translation), “make suffer,” or “torture.”
The time is specifically a reference to the final judgment, and so it may be rendered “before the Day of Judgment.” New American Bible renders “before the appointed time”; New Jerusalem Bible renders “before the time,” with a note indicating that the Day of Judgment is meant. A common translation is “the time of judgment” or “the proper time for that.”
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 .