Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 8:1

"At that time, saith Jehovah, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves;" — Jeremiah 8:1 (ASV)

At that time. — Clearly, there is no break in the discourse. The time, therefore, is that of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans and the burial of the slain. Not even the dead were to sleep in peace.

With a dreadful reiteration of the word, giving the emphasis of a funeral bell's toll, the prophet heaps clause upon clause: the bones of the kings, the bones of the princes, and so on.

The motives for this desecration of the sepulchers might be either the wanton ferocity of barbarian conquerors—bent, in the manner of savage warfare, on mutilating the dead—or the greed for gain and the expectation of finding concealed treasures. Thus, Hyrcanus, to the great scandal of the Jews, broke open the sepulcher of David (Josephus, Antiquities 7.15).