Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 11:23

"And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted unto heaven? thou shalt go down unto Hades: for if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in thee, it would have remained until this day." — Matthew 11:23 (ASV)

And thou, Capernaum—This city had already witnessed more of our Lord’s recorded wonders than any other. The miracles concerning the nobleman’s son (John 4:46–54), the demoniac (Mark 1:21–28), the man sick with palsy (Matthew 9:1–8), Peter’s mother-in-law and the many works that followed (Matthew 8:1–14), the woman with the issue of blood and Jairus’s daughter (Matthew 9:18–26), and the centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5–13) were all performed there, in addition to the unrecorded “signs” implied in Luke 4:23. It was in this sense, and not because of any outward prosperity, that Capernaum had been “exalted to heaven.”

All this, however, had been in vain. Therefore, the sentence was passed on the city that it should be “brought down to hell”—that is, to Hades (the grave), not Gehenna. These words point, as the next verse shows, to the ultimate abasement of the guilty city on the day of judgment.

Yet, the prophecy has also had an almost literal fulfillment. Today, only a few ruins, conjecturally identified, mark the site of Capernaum, while in Chorazin and Bethsaida, not one stone is left on another.