Ezekiel 31:13 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Upon his ruin, &c.— "As birds sit upon the boughs of a tree cut down, and the beasts brouze upon his branches; so shall the dominions of Pharaoh be a prey to the conquerors." It is a common image among the poetical writers, in representing a great national calamity or destruction, to mention animals of prey as fattening on the bodies of the dead. See Hom. Il. 1: and Deuteronomy 32:24.Psalms 78:48. Isaiah 34:7. But our author has advanced farther than any of his predecessors, and by a bold figure gives the trees, which he uses as a symbol for kingdoms, as a prey to the birds; and likewise places their ghosts in the separate mansions of the dead. We cannot sufficiently admire the beautiful novelty of this figure, the art wherewith it is wrought up, and the fertility of the prophet's invention. See Isaiah 14:9-20 and Michaelis's notes.