Lucas 10:13-14

The traditional site of Chorazin is at the north end of the Sea of Galilee. [Note: Finegan, The Archaeology . . ., pp. 57-58.] Bethsaida Julius was its near neighbor (cf. Luke 9:10). Thus the contrast Jesus presented was between two villages at the north end of the Sea of Galilee and two towns at the south end of the Dead Sea, Sodom and Gomorrah. This forms something of an inclusio for Israel as well as a geographical merism. Both Chorazin and Bethsaida, used as representatives for many other similar ones, had received much of Jesus’ ministry. Tyre and Sidon, two Phoenician cities on the Mediterranean coast, had suffered severe judgment for rejecting God and His people (cf. Isaiah 23:1-18; Jeremiah 25:22; Jeremiah 47:4; Ezekiel 26:1 to Ezekiel 28:23; Joel 3:4-8; Amos 1:9-10). The responsiveness of these rebellious Gentile towns in comparison to the unresponsive Jewish towns named would have encouraged readers of Luke’s Gospel who were witnessing to Gentiles. However, Jesus’ point was the dire fate that would come on people who spurned His offer of salvation (cf. Matthew 11:21-22). Sitting in ashes while wearing sackcloth made of goat hair or sitting on sackcloth expressed great sorrow connected with sin in the ancient Near East (cf. 1 Kings 21:27; Job 2:8; Job 42:6; Esther 4:2-3; Isaiah 58:5; Jonah 3:6-8).