Matthew 11:23 - An Understandable Version (2005 edition)

²³ And Capernaum, do you think you will be lifted up toward heaven [as a proud city]? [No indeed], you will [surely] go down to the place of the unseen [i.e., become obscure or obliterated as a city]. For if the powerful miracles had been performed in Sodom which were performed in your presence, it would have remained [even] until today.

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

²³ 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.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

²³ And you, Capernaum, are you to be lifted up to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades [the region of the dead]! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have continued until today.

American Standard Version (1901)

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.

Common English Bible

²³ And you, Capernaum, will you be honored by being raised up to heaven? No, you will be thrown down to the place of the dead. After all, if the miracles that were done among you had been done in Sodom, it would still be here today.

Catholic Public Domain Version

²³ And you, Capernaum, would you be exalted all the way to heaven? You shall descend all the way to Hell. For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Sodom, perhaps it would have remained, even to this day.

Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version

²³ And thou Capharnaum, shalt thou be exalted up to heaven? thou shalt go down even unto hell. For if in Sodom had been wrought the miracles that have been wrought in thee, perhaps it had remained unto this day.

Matthew 11:23 Cross References

Matthew 10:15

It is true when I say to you, the districts around Sodom and Gomorrah [i.e., despite their gross sins] will be shown more leniency than that town on the Day of Judgment.

Matthew 16:18

And I also tell you, [although] you are Peter [i.e., a stone], it is on this rock [i.e., the truth you have just confessed] that I will build my church and [not even] the gates of the unseen place of departed spirits will win out over it [i.e., all efforts to stamp out the church by killing Christians will fail].

Matthew 17:24

When Jesus and His disciples came to Capernaum, the collectors of the [Temple] tax [Note: This was the annual tax used for meeting the expenses of the Temple service and consisted of two twelve hour days’ worth of a farm laborer’s pay, or about $216 in 2005] came to Peter and said, “Does not your teacher [also] pay the [Temple] tax?”

Matthew 4:13

[After] leaving Nazareth [i.e., a major town in Galilee], He came to live in Capernaum, [a city] beside Lake Galilee, near the districts of Zebulun and Naphtali.

Matthew 8:5

And when He had arrived at Capernaum, a military officer approached Him, begging,

Luke 10:15

And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up [as high] as heaven? [Certainly not], you will be brought down to the unseen place of departed spirits [i.e., you will become obscure or obliterated as a city].

Luke 14:11

For every person who exalts himself [as important] will be humbled, but the person who humbles himself will be exalted [as important].”

Luke 16:23

And in the unseen place of departed spirits the rich man, who was being tormented, looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus close beside him.

Luke 4:23

And He replied to them, “No doubt you will tell me this proverb, ‘Doctor, heal yourself,’ and ‘Perform [the miracles] here in your own home town also that we heard you did in Capernaum.’”

Acts 2:27

because you [i.e., God] will not allow my soul [i.e., this is a reference to Jesus] to remain in Hades [i.e., the unseen place of the departed spirits], neither will you allow [the body of] your Holy One to decay.

Acts 2:31

David, foreseeing this, spoke of Christ being raised from the dead. [He said Jesus’ spirit] would not be left in the unseen place of departed spirits, nor would His body decay.

Jude 1:7

So also, in a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah, and their surrounding towns, which had abandoned themselves to sexual immorality and [sexually] perverted behavior, serve as an example [of people] who [will] suffer the punishment of never ending fire.

Revelation 1:18

and the Living One. I was dead, and see, I am [now] alive forever and ever! And I possess the keys of death and of the unseen place of departed spirits.

Revelation 11:8

And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city [Note: See the following passages on this “great city,” 14:8; 16:19; 17:5,18; 18:2, 10, 16, 18, 19, and 21] where the Lord was crucified, which is spiritually called Sodom, or Egypt.

Revelation 20:13

The ocean gave up the dead [bodies] that were in it; and death and the unseen place of departed spirits [also] gave up the dead [bodies and spirits] that were in them. And every person was judged according to his deeds.

Revelation 6:8

So, I looked and before me [stood] a pale green horse, and the name of the man riding on it was “Death,” and the unseen place of departed spirits followed along behind him. And they were [both] given authority over one fourth of the earth, to kill people with swords, with famine, with terrible judgments and by wild animals of the earth.