Bible Strands
Matthew 11:23
And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses the residents of Capernaum immediately after pronouncing judgment on Chorazin and Bethsaida, situating the warning within his Galilean ministry.
The words — ὑψωθὴσῃ (hupsōthēsei) literally means "will you be exalted" or "lifted up," framing the rhetorical question about Capernaum’s fate.
The thread — The contrast between exaltation and descent echoes Isaiah 14:13, while the Sodom comparison draws on the city’s recorded wickedness in Genesis 13:13 and its historical destruction.
Why it lands — The text states that Capernaum’s rejection of witnessed miracles will bring a harsher judgment than Sodom’s, establishing that greater exposure to divine acts increases accountability. Readers must recognize that privilege without obedience invites severe consequence.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 14:13 You said in your heart: “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north.
- John 4:46 So once again He came to Cana in Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. And there was a royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum.
- Genesis 13:13 But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the LORD.
- Matthew 4:13 Leaving Nazareth, He went and lived in Capernaum, which is by the sea in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,
- Revelation 11:8 Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city—figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where their Lord was also crucified.
- Genesis 19:24 Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.
- Lamentations 2:1 How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion with the cloud of His anger! He has cast the glory of Israel from heaven to earth. He has abandoned His footstool in the day of His anger.
- Ezekiel 16:48 As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did as you and your daughters have done.
- Ezekiel 28:12 “Son of man, take up a lament for the king of Tyre and tell him that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
- Ezekiel 31:16 I made the nations quake at the sound of its downfall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who descend to the Pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, all the well-watered trees, were consoled in the earth below.