And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. Jesus moves from Nazareth — where he had grown up and would be rejected (Luke 4:28–30) — to Capernaum on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum becomes his base of ministry, the city Matthew 9:1 will call his own city. The geographical specificity — the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali — matches the fulfillment citation of verses 14–16: Isaiah had named these exact territories as the ones who would first see the light. Matthew is showing that Jesus' residential choice is itself a fulfillment of prophecy, that even the details of his domestic geography are part of the pattern of the coming kingdom.

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