Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 24:28

"Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together." — Matthew 24:28 (ASV)

Wheresoever, etc. The words in this verse are proverbial. Vultures and eagles easily discover where dead bodies are and come to devour them. So it is 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, just as vultures find a dead carcass, and will gather around it to devour it. This proverb also teaches a universal truth: wherever wicked men are, there the instruments of their chastisement will be assembled. The providence of God will direct them there, just as eagles are directed to a dead carcass.

This verse is connected with the preceding one by the word "for," implying that it provides a reason for what is stated there: that the Son of Man would certainly come to destroy the city, and that He would come suddenly. The meaning is that He would come by means of the Roman armies—as certainly, as suddenly, and as unexpectedly as whole flocks of vultures and eagles, though previously unseen, suddenly find their prey, spot it from a great distance, and gather in multitudes around it.

Travelers in the Arabian deserts report that they sometimes witness a speck in the distant sky, which for a long time is barely visible. Eventually, it grows larger and draws nearer; then, they finally discover that it is a vulture, which from an immense distance has spotted 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, still spying out, as it were, Jerusalem—a putrid carcass—and hastening in multitudes to destroy it.