Matthew 11:21 - Exposition

Woe unto thee, Chorazin . The modern Kerazeh , two miles from the northwest bank of the sea of Galilee. Among its ruins are the remains of a synagogue. The corn of both it and Kephar Ahim (probably Capernaum)was so excellent as to make R. Jose say that, had they been nearer Jerusalem, it would have been used for the temple offerings . Woe unto thee, Bethsaida . Schurer (I. Matthew 2:14 ; compare, however, II . 1:136) thinks that this is probably not identical with the large town Bethsaida Julias on the east bank of the Jordan as it enters the sea of Galilee. It is, perhaps, Khan Minyeh (Nosgen), and if so was a little south-west of Capernaum. For if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon . The transposition of parts of these clauses in the Revised Version approaches more closely the order of the Greek, and better Dreserves the double emphasis there given. Tyro and Sidon ( Ezekiel 28:1-26 .). They would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes ( Jonah 3:6 ; Daniel 9:3 ; Esther 4:1 ; comp. also Job 2:8 ; 2 Samuel 3:31 ; and Ezekiel's description of the effect of Tyre's punishment upon her princes, Ezekiel 26:16 ).