Luke 10:15

And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:1-16 Christ sent the seventy disciples, two and two, that they might strengthen and encourage one another. The ministry of the gospel calls men to receive Christ as a Prince and a Saviour; and he will surely come in the power of his Spirit to all places whither he sends his faithful servants. But the doom of those who receive the grace of God in vain, will be very fearful Those who despise the faithful ministers of Christ, who think meanly of them, and look scornfully upon them, will be reckoned as despisers of God and Christ.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the notes at Matthew 11:21-24.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12-15. (See on [1627]Mt 11:20-24).

for Sodom—Tyre and Sidon were ruined by commercial prosperity; Sodom sank through its vile pollutions: but the doom of otherwise correct persons who, amidst a blaze of light, reject the Saviour, shall be less endurable than that of any of these.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 10:13"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And thou Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven,.... Referring either to the situation of it, which was on a very high hill; or to its privileges, through the ministry and miracles of Christ; or the phrase may be expressive of the pride and loftiness of the inhabitants of it, who were elated with the mercies they enjoyed, it being a most delightful, pleasant, and comfortable place to live in, as its name signifies. It was a famous port, commodiously situated by the sea of Tiberias; and, as Josephus (f) says, was in an excellent temperament of the air, and watered with a most choice fountain, called by the same name.

Shalt be thrust down into hell; meaning either the low condition to which it was to be, and has been reduced in a temporal sense, and continues in to this day; there being nothing of it now remaining, as travellers, who have been eyewitnesses of it, say (g), but a few little houses and cottages; or else the sad and miserable condition of the inhabitants of it hereafter: and so it is, that such who have lived in great plenty and pleasure in this life, and have thought themselves to be the favourites of heaven, and that they should enter there, shall be thrust down to hell by the arm of vengeance, with the utmost indignation in God, and shame to themselves: it follows in Matthew, "for if the mighty works which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day; but I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, in the day of judgment, than for thee".

(f) De Bello Jud. l. 3. c. 35. (g) Vid. L'Empereur, Not. in Benj. Itinerar. p. 68.

Geneva Study Bible

And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. And thou, Capernaum) Christ’s “own city.”

exalted to heaven] by inestimable spiritual privileges. “Admitted into a holier sanctuary, they were guilty of a deeper sacrilege.” A better reading is (for ἡ … ὑψωθεῖσα) is μὴ ὑψωθήσῃ; “Shalt thou be exalted to heaven? Thou shalt be thrust down...!”

shalt be thrust dawn to hell) Rather, as far as Hades. When our Lord uttered this woe these cities on the shores of Gennesareth were bright and populous and prospering; now they are desolate heaps of ruins in a miserable land. The inhabitants who lived thirty years longer may have recalled these woes in the unspeakable horrors of slaughter and conflagration which the Romans then inflicted on them.

It is immediately after the celebrated description of the loveliness of the Plain of Gennesareth that Josephus goes on to tell of the shore strewn with wrecks and putrescent bodies, “insomuch that the misery was not only an object of commiseration to the Jews, but even to those that hated them and had been the authors of that misery,” Jos. B. J. III. 10, § 8. For fuller details see my Life of Christ, II. 101 sq.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell. When the Lord came to speak of the woe of Capernaum, his own chosen city, his favourite earthly home, his words grew even more solemn. The simile he uses, "hell," better rendered Hades, is chosen to paint the contrast between the glorious destiny [this beautiful lake-city might have chosen, and the tremendous woe which she had voluntarily brought on herself. The present state of the Plain of Gennesaret is indeed so desolate and miserable that we can scarcely picture to ourselves that it was once a populous, crowded district, the blue lake covered with fishing and trading vessels, its shores and the plain inland highly cultivated, a very garden in that part of Asia. Rich towns and thriving villages in that favoured neighbourhood are described by contemporary writers in such glowing terms that we, who are spectators of the dreary and melancholy shores of the Gennesaret lake, are puzzled as we read, and should suspect an exaggeration, only an exaggeration would have been purposeless (see Josephus, 'Bell. Jud.,' 3:03.2). Some thirty years after the woe had been uttered, in the terrible wars in which Rome avenged herself on the Jewish hatred and scorn, the garden of Gennesaret was changed into a ruin-covered solitude. Joseph's, who had been dwelling on the loveliness of the place, describes the state of the shore strewn with wrecks and putrefying bodies, "insomuch that the misery was not only an object of commiseration to the Jews, but even to these that hated them and had been the authors of that misery" ('Bell. Jud.,' 3:10. 8; and see Dr. Farrar's' Life of Christ,' 2:101). Luke 10:15

Vincent's Word Studies

Which art exalted to heaven

For ἡ, the article, rendered which, the best texts give μὴ, the interrogative particle; and for the participle having been exalted, the future shalt be exalted. Render, as Rev., Shalt thou be exalted, etc.

Hell

Rev., Hades. See on Matthew 16:18.