Matthew 24 · Verse 28

Matthew 24:28

For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Matthew 24:28, King James Version

Matthew 24:28 in other translations

BSBWherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
WEBFor wherever the carcass is, that is where the vultures gather together.
ASVWheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
YLTfor wherever the carcase may be, there shall the eagles be gathered together.
DARBYFor wherever the carcase is, there will be gathered the eagles.
BBEWherever the dead body is, there will the eagles come together.
WebsterFor wherever the carcass is, there will the eagles be collected.

What does Matthew 24:28 mean?

Barnes' Notes
Verse 28. Wheresoever, etc. The words in this verse are proverbial. Vultures and eagles easily ascertain where dead bodies are, and come to devour them. So with the Roman army. Jerusalem is like a dead and putrid corpse. Its life is gone, and it is ready to be devoured. The Roman armies will find it out, as the vultures do a dead carcass, and will come around it, to devour it. This proverb also teaches a universal truth. Wherever wicked men are, there will be assembled the instruments of their chastisement. The providence of God will direct them there, as the eagles are directed to a dead carcass.

This verse is connected with the preceding by the word "for," implying that this is a reason for what is said there, that the Son of man would certainly come to destroy the city, and that he would come suddenly. The meaning is, he would come by means of the Roman armies, as certainly, as suddenly, and as unexpectedly, as whole flocks of vultures and eagles, though unseen before, suddenly find their prey, see it at a great distance, and gather in multitudes around it. Travellers in the deserts of Arabia tell us that they sometimes witness a speck in the distant sky, which for a long time is scarcely visible. At length, it grows larger; it comes nearer; and they at last find that it is a vulture, that has from an immense distance seen a carcass lying on the sand. So keen is their vision, and so aptly does this represent the Roman armies, though at an immense distance, yet spying, as it were, Jerusalem, a putrid carcass, and hastening in multitudes to destroy it.

(x) "For wheresoever" Job 39:30

Albert Barnes, 1834 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 28 For wheresoever the carcass is - Πτωμα, the dead carcass. The Jewish nation, which was morally and judicially dead. There will the eagles - The Roman armies, called so partly from their strength and fierceness, and partly from the figure of these animals which was always wrought on their ensigns, or even in brass, placed on the tops of their ensign-staves. It is remarkable that the Roman fury pursued these wretched men wheresoever they were found. They were a dead carcass doomed to be devoured; and the Roman eagles were the commissioned devourers. See the pitiful account in Josephus, War, b. vii. c. 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, and 11.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Matthew 24:4-28

The disciples had asked concerning the times, When these things should be? Christ gave them no answer to that; but they had also asked, What shall be the sign? This question he answers fully. The prophecy first respects events near at hand, the destruction of Jerusalem, the end of the Jewish church and state, the calling of the Gentiles, and the setting up of Christ's kingdom in the world; but it also looks to the…

Read the full comment on Matthew 24:4-28 →

Matthew 24:28 in the original Greek

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

ὅπουhopouwhereverG3699
ἐὰνeanifG1437
ᾖēshall beG1510
τὸtotheG3588
πτῶμα,ptōmacarcass,G4430
ἐκεῖekeithereG1563
συναχθήσονταιsunachthēsontaiwill be gatheredG4863
οἱhoitheG3588
ἀετοί.aetoivultures.G105

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Matthew 24:28

  • Luke 17:37

    And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.

  • Job 39:27-30

    Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off. Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.

  • Amos 9:1-4

    I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered. Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them: And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.

  • Deuteronomy 28:49

    The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;

  • Jeremiah 16:16

    Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
De 28:49; Job 39:27-30; Jer 16:16; Am 9:1-4; Lu 17:37

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Matthew 24:27

    For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

  • Matthew 24:28

    For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

  • Matthew 24:29

    Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

Read all of Matthew 24

Matthew 24:28 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Porque donde quiera que estuviere el cuerpo muerto, allí se juntarán las águilas.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Car, où que soit le corps mort, là s’assembleront les aigles.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Denn wo irgend das Aas ist, da werden die Adler versammelt werden.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Ubicumque fuerit corpus, illic congregabuntur et aquilæ.