THEOSISJerome of Stridon
Behold, I will bring a sword upon you and will demolish your heights. Your altars will be destroyed, and your idols shall be shattered; I will cast the slain before your false gods. The lifeless bodies of the children of Israel will lie before your idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars in all your dwellings. It is declared to the mountains of Israel that God will dismantle their heights, the very places where men have worshipped their contrived deities.
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He will break down the altars of those idols and leave their worshippers fallen before their shrines, so that the lifeless forms will be found where sacrifices once were laid, with bones scattered—not from the mountains themselves, but from those who dwelt on them, around the altars and throughout all the cities and villages of Israel. This interpretation holds true in a literal sense.
Moreover, those who are consumed by pride are also addressed; as the apostle has written, “The mind boils, and everyone builds up” (1 Cor. 8: 1). The sword is drawn upon them so that the idols they have constructed may be shattered, and they may fall, realizing their own demise, understanding that their idols and creations offer them no assistance. In stating that He will scatter the bones of the mountains around the altars, He signifies that even their strongest individuals will be separated from one another. A proper discernment of perverse knowledge serves to isolate the worst from the worst. Just as those who built the tower due to a harmful unity were scattered and their languages divided (Gen. 11), so too will the bones of the mountains be scattered, that they might recognize the emptiness of their pursuits. It is important to note that the phrase "I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before your idols" is absent from the Seventy.