2 Chronicles 35:25

And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) And Jeremiah lamented—i.e., wrote a dirge. The special mourning of the land over Josiah is not mentioned in Kings.

The singing men . . . women.—The LXX. has “the ruling men . . . women,” reading sārîm . . . sārôth, instead of shārîm . . . shārôth.

Spake of Josiah in their lamentations.—In the dirges which they used to sing on certain anniversaries of disaster.

And made them an ordinance.—And they made them (i.e. the laments for Josiah) a standing custom to Israel.

They are written in the lamentations.—The dirges alluding to Josiah’s untimely end, and among them Jeremiah’s, were preserved in a Book of Dirges (qînôth), which may have been extant in the chronicler’s day. (Comp. the allusions in Jeremiah 22:10; Jeremiah 22:18; Zechariah 12:11.)

This collection, however, was quite different from the canonical book of Lamentations, the subject of which is the ruin of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldeans.

Benson Commentary

2 Chronicles 35:25. Jeremiah lamented for Josiah — Sorrowed much on account of the immature death of this good king, foreseeing that the utter ruin of his country would follow upon it. And as it was usual with the Jews to make lamentations, elegies, or mournful pieces upon the death of great men, princes, and others that had distinguished themselves among them, and deserved well of their country, it is probable Jeremiah wrote such a piece on the occasion of Josiah’s death. If he did so, the loss of it is very much to be deplored, because, as Dr. Dodd observes, it was, no doubt, “a masterpiece of its kind as there never was an author more deeply affected with his subject, or more capable of carrying it through all the tender sentiments of sorrow and compassion, than Jeremiah.” All the singing-men and singing-women spake of Josiah in their lamentations — Among the Jews men and women were usually employed to mourn at funerals, and to sing the praises of the dead. And so real and great was the mourning for Josiah, that for ages afterward they always remembered it in their lamentations for the dead, saying of the person deceased, Then art worthy to be lamented for, as good Josiah was, or words to the same purpose. Or, as Poole thinks, the meaning may be, that in all their succeeding lamentations for their public calamities, they remembered Josiah’s death as their first and fatal blow, which opened the flood-gates to all their following miseries. And made them an ordinance in Israel — Ordained that the mournful pieces, penned on this sad occasion, should be learned and sung by all sorts of people. And, behold, they are written in the Lamentations — Not in the book termed The Lamentations of Jeremiah, which was written on another occasion; but in some collection of mournful poems, now lost.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

35:20-27 The Scripture does not condemn Josiah's conduct in opposing Pharaoh. Yet Josiah seems to deserve blame for not inquiring of the Lord after he was warned; his death might be a rebuke for his rashness, but it was a judgment on a hypocritical and wicked people. He that lives a life of repentance, faith, and obedience, cannot be affected by the sudden manner in which he is removed. The people lamented him. Many mourn over sufferings, who will not forsake the sins that caused God to send them. Yet this alone can turn away judgments. If we blame Josiah's conduct, we should be watchful, lest we be cut down in a way dishonourable to our profession.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Some find Jeremiah's lament in the entire Book of Lamentations; others in a part of it Lamentations 4. But most critics are of opinion that the lament is lost. Days of calamity were commemorated by lamentations on their anniversaries, and this among the number. The "Book of Dirges" was a collection of such poems which once existed but is now lost.

And made them an ordinance - Rather, "and they made them an ordinance," they i. e. who had authority to do so, not the minstrels.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, &c.—The elegy of the prophet has not reached us; but it seems to have been long preserved among his countrymen and chanted on certain public occasions by the professional singers, who probably got the dirges they sang from a collection of funeral odes composed on the death of good and great men of the nation. The spot in the valley of Megiddo where the battle was fought was near the town of Hadad-rimmon; hence the lamentation for the death of Josiah was called "the lamentation of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo," which was so great and so long continued, that the lamentation of Hadad passed afterwards into a proverbial phrase to express any great and extraordinary sorrow (Zec 12:11).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In their lamentations to this day; in all their succeeding lamentations for their public calamities, and for the ruin of their city, and temple, and state, and church they remembered Josiah’s death as their first and most fatal blow, and as that which opened the flood-gates to all their following miseries, and it was ordained that they should do so, as the next words intimate.

In the lamentations; either in that canonical book of Jeremiah’s Lamentations, or in some other volume of mournful ditties, made by divers persons upon occasion of their following calamities, which is since lost.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah,.... Composed a lamentation for him, which is now lost; for what is said in Lamentations 4:20 respects Zedekiah, and not Josiah:

and all the singing men, and all the singing women, spake of Josiah in their lamentations unto this day; who were made use of on mournful occasions, as the "preficae" among the Romans, see Jeremiah 9:17 these in their mournful ditties used to make mention of his name, and the disaster that befell him:

and made them an ordinance in Israel; an annual constitution, as the Targum calls it, appointing a solemn mourning for him once a year, which Jarchi says was on the ninth of Ab or July:

and, behold, they are written in the lamentations; not of Jeremiah; though the Targum is,

"lo, they are written in the book which Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah, concerning the lamentations,''but respect a collection of lamentations on various subjects then in being, but since lost.

Geneva Study Bible

And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the {n} lamentations.

(n) Which some think Jeremiah wrote, in which he laments the state of the church after this king's death.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25 (= 1Es 1:32; not in 2 Kin.). The Lamentations for Josiah

25. lamented] i.e. “composed (or uttered) an elegy.” The Heb. word (ḳônçn) suggests formal composition, and the actual words of lamentation are often given; 2 Samuel 1:17 ff; 2 Samuel 3:33-34; Ezekiel 27:32; Ezekiel 32:2; Ezekiel 32:16.

and they made them an ordinance] Cp. 2 Samuel 1:18, R.V.

in the lamentations] In some lost work, not in our canonical book of the Lamentations, for there we “look in vain for a single word distinctive of a funeral dirge over a devout and zealous reformer like Josiah” (E. H. Plumptre in Smith’s Bib. Dict. s.v.).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - If Jeremiah's lamenting on this occasion was one committed to writing, it has not survived. To this day; i.e. probably anniversary after anniversary to the time of the writer to whom this statement belongs, the authority from which our compiler draws his materials. Written in the lamentations. We have here another glimpse of a work which has not been handed down to us. 2 Chronicles 35:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The death of the pious king was deeply lamented by his people. The prophet Jeremiah composed a lamentation for Josiah: "and all the singing-men and singing-women spake in their lamentations of Josiah unto this day;" i.e., in the lamentation which they were wont to sing on certain fixed days, they sung also the lamentation for Josiah. "And they made them (these lamentations) an ordinance (a standing custom) in Israel, and they are written in the lamentations," i.e., in a collection of lamentations, in which, among others, that composed by Jeremiah on the death of Josiah was contained. This collection is, however, not to be identified with the Lamentations of Jeremiah over the destruction of Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah, contained in our canon. - On 2 Chronicles 35:26. cf. 2 Kings 23:28. הסדיו as in 2 Chronicles 32:32. בת כּכּתוּב, according to that which is written in the law of Moses, cf. 2 Chronicles 31:3. וּדבריו is the continuation of דּברי יתר (2 Chronicles 35:26).