(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 s?rim . . . s?roth, instead of sh?rim . . . sh?roth.

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 (qinoth), 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.

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.

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.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.