2 Chronicles 35:25

2Ch 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.

Ver. 25. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah.] Whose worth he had fully known; and to whom himself was better known than Daniel was afterwards to Belshazzar; who knew not till he was told by his mother that there was any such man in his kingdom. Whereas had he been a Tricongiustospot, he would sooner have taken knowledge of him.

And behold they are written in the lamentations.] Whether he meant the Lamentations of Jeremiah Lam 4:1-22, or some other mournful ditty extant in those time, and known by the name of the Lamentations, {a} is uncertain. The Roman senate bitterly bewailed the death of Titus, heaping more praise upon him dead than ever they had done whilst he was alive. {b} Cardanus’s epitaph upon our King Edward VI is well known -

“ Flete nefas magnum, sed toto flebitis orbe

Mortales: rester corruit omnis honos.

Nam regum decus et iuvenum flos, spesque bonorum,

Deliciae saecli et gloria gentis erat.

Dignus Apollineis lachrymis, doctaeque Minervae

Flosculus (heu misero) concidit ante diem.

Te tumulo dabimus Musae supremaque flentes

Munera, Melpomene tristia fata canet. ”

{a} θρηνωδιας

{b} Sueton.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ch 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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

35:25 Jeremiah held Josiah in high esteem (see Jer 22:15-16; cp. Jer 22:10). The Book of Laments was lost; it is not related to the Book of Lamentations.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Which some think Jeremiah made, wherein he lamenteth the state of the Church after this king’s death.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

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 (Zac 12:11).

Next: 2 Chronicles Chapter 36

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 25. Behold, they are written in the lamentations.] The Hebrews had poetical compositions for all great and important events, military songs, songs of triumph, epithalamia or marriage odes, funeral elegies, c. Several of these are preserved in different parts of the historical books of Scripture, and these were generally made by prophets or inspired men. That composed on the tragical end of this good king by Jeremiah is now lost. The Targum says, "Jeremiah bewailed Josiah with a great lamentation and all the chiefs and matrons sing these lamentations concerning Josiah to the present day, and it was a statute in Israel annually to bewail Josiah. Behold, these are written in the book of Lamentations, which Baruch wrote down from the mouth of Jeremiah."

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(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 sârîm . . . sârôth, instead of shârîm . . . shârôth.

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 Jer_22:10; Jer_22:18; Zec_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.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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; 2Sa_1:17 ff; 2Sa_3:33-34; Eze_27:32; Eze_32:2; Eze_32:16.

and they made them an ordinance] Cp. 2Sa_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.).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

His piety towards God, and liberality to the people; of these two verses; see Gill on Kg2 23:28.

Next: 2 Chronicles Chapter 36

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Some find Jeremiah’s lament in the entire Book of Lamentations; others in a part of it Lam. 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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Lamentations. Some think that we have them in the Bible. Josephus, &c. --- Others believe that they are lost. Salien, the year of the world 3425. --- Law, on the anniversary; (M.) or when any calamity occurs, the lamentations of Jeremias are used. T. --- There were collections of such poems, as well as of canticles, for victory and marriages. C.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

25. The lamentations — See Introduction.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To this day - In all their succeeding Lamentations for their publick calamities, they remembered Josiah's death as their first and fatal blow, which opened the flood-gates to all their following miseries.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

to this day

This means the day on which the writer wrote. See how you translated this in 2 Chronicles 5:9.

behold, they

Possible meanings: 1) "this is where they are: they" or 2) "they still exist: they."

the songs of lament

This was an ancient scroll of funeral songs.

translationWords

Jeremiah

lament

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

And all the male...singers - הַשָּׁרִים, an expression of song, choristers, for both song and lamentation are recited with the same voice. Concerning him, Amos prophesied (8:9): “and I will cause the sun to set at midday, and I will darken the land on a sunny day.” This is the day of Josiah, who died at the age of thirty-nine, in the middle of his days, for it is written (Ps. 90:10): “The days of our years because of them are seventy years,” and it is written (Amos 8:10): “And I will turn your festivals into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation, etc. and I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.” This is what [the Chronicler] says: “And all the male and female singers said in their lamentations,” “and all of Judah and Jerusalem were mourning” for him.

and they made them a statute When any grief or weeping befalls them, for which they lament and weep, they mention this grief with it. An example is the Ninth of Av, in which we recite lamentations for those slain in the persecutions that occurred in our times. They will similarly bewail the day of Josiah’s death. An example is (Jud. 11:39f.): “and it became a statute in Israel, etc. to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in a year.”

and behold, they are written in the lamentations in the Book of Lamentations.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.