‘And Jesus departed from there, and came alongside the sea of Galilee, and he went up into the mountain, and sat there.'
Having gone northwards through the regions of Sidon, Jesus then moved eastwards and made for the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, where He again ‘went up into the mountain'. Possibly His aim had been to circumvent Galilee. Going up into ‘the mountain' always signifies in Matthew a deeply spiritual time, compare Matthew 5:1; Matthew 14:23; Matthew 28:16; and see also Matthew 17:1. And there He ‘sat down', to teach.