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.