Jerome : (Vers. 4, 5.) Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. And I will overthrow your altars, and break your images, and cast down your slain before your idols. And I will give the dead bodies of the children of Israel before the face of their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars in all your dwellingplaces. It is said of the mountains of Israel that God will destroy their high places, where people worshiped false gods, and will break their altars and images, and cause their worshipers to be killed in front of their temples; so that the bodies of the dead may lie where the offerings used to lie; and the bones of those who were on the mountains, not the mountains themselves, will be scattered around the altars and in all the cities and villages of Israel. This literally. Otherwise, against those who are uplifted in pride, and of whom the Apostle speaks: Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up (I Cor. VIII, 1), the sword is brought forth, so that all their images, which they have fashioned in their own minds, may be crushed and lie dead, and they may feel themselves to be dead, realizing that their images and creations are of no benefit to them. And he says that the bones of the mountains shall be scattered around the altars, indicating that the strongest among them should be separated from one another. For it is beneficial for evil to be separated from evil by perverse knowledge. And as those who were building the tower with the worst consent were dispersed for their own utility, and their tongues were divided (Gen. XI), so will the bones of the mountains be scattered, that they may understand the vanity of their endeavors. This that we have set forth: 'And I will give the bodies of the children of Israel before the face of your idols,' is not found in the Septuagint. — Commentary on Ezekiel