Jeremiah 8:2

The enemy soldiers would expose these bones to the sun, moon, and stars, which the Judahites had loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshipped.

". . . as if in fulfillment of the desires of the dead, their bones are laid out upon the earth, exposed to the very astral ’powers’ whom once the dead had worshiped. And in the humiliation of the dead, their former heavenly masters were uncaring, complacently shining in the heavens, unconcerned about human fate on the face of the earth. Although in life the citizens of Judah had served these astral deities, offering them affection, soliciting their advice and counsel (much as their modern counterparts might read an astrological chart), in human death the futility of their actions was at last made plain." [Note: Craigie, p. 127.]

Worship of astral deities was popular in the days of Manasseh (2 Kings 21:3; 2 Kings 23:4) and later revived after Josiah’s reforms (Ezekiel 8:16). The land would resemble a boneyard, because there would be few, if any, survivors from Judah to gather up the bones for burial (cf. ch. 37). Human bones would serve as fertilizer for the land instead of animal bones, which were often used for this purpose (cf. Jeremiah 16:4).