Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel,.... Be slain, and his carcass lie there; so the Targum,"upon the mountains of the land of Israel thy carcass shall be cast:''thou and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee; Gog and his army, auxiliaries and allies:I will give thee to the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured: a great part of his army being slain, should not be buried, but be devoured by birds of prey, and savage beasts; such as eagles and vultures of the former sort, and lions, bears, wolves, &c.
of the latter. This was always reckoned a very sore judgment and dreadful calamity, not to have a burial, but to be exposed to birds and beasts of prey; this was threatened to the Israelites, in case of disobedience to the law of God, De 28:26 and to the wicked Jews in the times of Jeremiah; and to that evil king of Judah, Jehoiakim, Jer 16:4 and is lamented as one of the greatest evils that could befall good men, Ps 79:2, and nothing was more dreadful among the Heathens themselves; hence Homer , among the many calamities Achilles was the cause of to the Grecians, mentions this as one, that he was the means of giving the bodies of a great number of their heroes to the dogs, and to the fowls of the air; so Virgil represents the want of a burial, and being left to be fed upon by birds of prey, as severe a punishment of a wicked man as can be wished for.
Iliad. 1. l. 4, 5. "----non te optima mater Condet humi, patriove onerrabit membra sepulchro Alitibus linquere feris". Aeneid. l.