Chorazin

Chorazin is a Galilean town named in a single recorded saying — a woe pronounced over it for failing to repent at the mighty works performed there. It is paired with Bethsaida and set against the Gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon.

The woe over the unrepentant town

The saying opens with parallel exclamations: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which were done in you⁺, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes" (Luke 10:13). The two Galilean towns are addressed together, and the comparison runs against Tyre and Sidon — coastal Phoenician cities normally cast as oppressors in the prophetic books — who, on this hypothetical, would have outdone Chorazin in repentance.

The verdict that follows tightens the comparison: "But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you⁺" (Luke 10:14). The plural-you holds the indictment on Chorazin and Bethsaida as a unit. The saying then turns to Capernaum: "And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to Hades" (Luke 10:15). The three Galilean towns — Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum — share one verdict, and Chorazin is named only here.