Jeremiah 8:1

When the invasion from the north came (cf. Jeremiah 7:32-34), the Lord declared, the enemy soldiers would dig up the bodies of kings, princes, priests, prophets, and ordinary citizens (cf. Amos 2:1). Thus they would add insult to injury. The ancients believed that the spirits of unburied people would have no rest in the netherworld. [Note: Graybill, pp. 665-66.] Some of the reason for exhuming these corpses may have been to plunder the graves of the dead, a practice that was common in the ancient Near East. [Note: Feinberg, p. 434.]

"Even in modern times, the opening up of graves and the throwing about of the bones of the departed is practiced as a mark of extreme contempt. In recent wars in the Middle East such desecrations and insult were perpetrated." [Note: Thompson, p. 295, n. 2.]