2 Chronicles 35:25

25 Jeremiah chanted a dirge over Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women still speak of Josiah in their dirges to this very day. They established them as a statute for Israel, and indeed they are written in the Dirges.^[a]

2 Chronicles 35:25 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 35:25

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.

2 Chronicles 35:25 In-Context

23 The archers shot King Josiah, and he said to his servants, "Take me away, for I am severely wounded!"

24 So his servants took him out of the war chariot, carried him in his second chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem. Then he died, and they buried him in the tomb of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

25 Jeremiah chanted a dirge over Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women still speak of Josiah in their dirges to this very day. They established them as a statute for Israel, and indeed they are written in the Dirges.

26 The rest of the events of Josiah's [reign], along with his deeds of faithful love according to what is written in the law of the Lord,

27 and his words, from beginning to end, are written about in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

Footnotes

• [a]. 2 Kg 23:29-30