Lucas 10:15

And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted unto heaven? thou shalt be brought down unto Hades.

Capernaum ... This was the home of Jairus whose daughter was raised from the dead, and of the centurions whose son and servant were healed, and of the nobleman whose son was healed of a fever; but the implication is clear that many such wonders were wrought in addition to these which found their way into the sacred gospels.

Shalt thou be exalted unto heaven ...? Favorably situated in Galilee, a strong commercial city, gateway to Palestine from the East, beneficiary of the payroll afforded by a strong military outpost of the Romans, this city might have imagined that nothing but increasing prosperity and glory would mark their future; but Jesus did not see their future in such a favorable light. As a consequence of rejecting Jesus, Capernaum and all the cities of Israel would be utterly destroyed.

Hades ... Geldenhuys wrote that in the New Testament, "Hades does not mean the abode of the dead (the good and the wicked) but a place of punishment and condemnation."[15] Summers, however, while conceding that "Hades" sometimes has this meaning (as in Revelation 20:14), insisted that the usual meaning is "the place of the dead. In the sense of the realm of the dead it was used for the idea of extinction."[16] Perhaps we might reconcile scholarly opinions by supposing that both meanings appear in the word here. Certainly the character of Capernaum which deserved a judgment of extinction would also project a final overthrow in hell itself.

[15] Norval Geldenhuys, op. cit., p. 305.

[16] Ray Summers, op. cit., p. 131.