Matthew 4:13

Sea - Large basin.

And leaving Nazareth - Or, entirely leaving Nazareth, και καταλιπων την Ναζαρετ, from κατα, intensive, and Δειπω, I leave. It seems that, from this time, our blessed Lord made Capernaum his ordinary place of residence; and utterly forsook Nazareth, because they had wholly rejected his word, and even attempted to take away his life. See Luke 4:29.

Galilee was bounded by mount Lebanon on the north, by the river Jordan and the sea of Galilee on the east, by Chison on the south, and by the Mediterranean on the west.

Nazareth, a little city in the tribe of Zebulon, in lower Galilee, with Tabor on the east, and Ptolemais on the west. It is supposed that this city was the usual residence of our Lord for the first thirty years of his life. It was here he became incarnate, lived in subjection to Joseph and Mary, and from which he took the name of a Nazorean.

Capernaum, a city famous in the New Testament, but never mentioned in the Old. Probably it was one of those cities which the Jews built after their return from Babylon. It stood on the sea-coast of Galilee, on the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim, as mentioned in the text. This was called his own city, Matthew 9:1, etc., and here, as a citizen, he paid the half shekel, Matthew 17:24. Among the Jews, if a man became a resident in any city for twelve months, he thereby became a citizen, and paid his proportion of dues and taxes. See Lightfoot. Capernaum is well known to have been the principal scene of our Lord's miracles during the three years of his public ministry.

Zabulon, the country of this tribe, in which Nazareth and Capernaum were situated, bordered on the lake of Gennesareth, stretching to the frontiers of Sidon, Genesis 49:13. Nephthalim was contiguous to it, and both were on the east side of Jordan, Joshua 19:34.

Leaving Nazareth - Because his townsmen cast him out, and rejected him. See Luke 4:14-30.

Came and dwelt in Capernaum - This was a city on the northwest corner of the Sea of Tiberias. It is not mentioned in the Old Testament, but is repeatedly referred to in the Gospels. Though it was once a city of renown, and the metropolis of all Galilee, the site it occupied is now uncertain. When Mr. Fisk, an American missionary, traveled in Syria in 1823, he found 20 or 30 uninhabited Arab huts occupying what are supposed to be the ruins of the once-celebrated city of Capernaum.

The exact site of this ancient city has been a question of much interest, and is not supposed to be as yet fully settled; perhaps it is not possible that it should be. Dr. Robinson (Biblical Researches, iii. pp. 283, 284, 288-295) supposes that the site of the ancient city is a place now called Khan Minyeh. Dr. Thomson (The Land and the Book, vol. ii. pp. 542-547) supposes that it was at a place now called Tell Hum. This place is a short distance north of Khan Minyeh, or the site supposed by Dr. Robinson to be Capernaum. It is at the northwest corner of the Sea of Tiberias.

In this place and its neighborhood Jesus spent no small part of the three years of his public ministry. It is hence called his own city, Matthew 9:1. Here he healed the nobleman's son John 4:47; Peter's wife's mother Matthew 8:14; the centurion's servant Matthew 8:5-13; and the ruler's daughter Matthew 9:23-25.

Upon the sea coast - The Sea of Tiberias.

In the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim - These were two tribes of the children of Israel which were located in this part of the land of Canaan, and constituted in the time of Christ a part of Galilee. Compare Genesis 49:13; Joshua 19:10, Joshua 19:32. The word "borders" here means boundaries. Jesus came and lived in the boundaries or regions of Zabulon and Naphthali.

4:13 Leaving Nazareth - Namely, when they had wholly rejected his word, and even attempted to kill him, 4:29 .