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._ Jeremiah lamented for Josiah ... The elegy of the prophet has not reached us; but it seems to have been long preserved among his countrymen, and chaunted 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, a name derived from that of a Syrian idol. Herodotus relates (b. 2:, 159) that the scene of Josiah's defeat was Magdolum - i:e., most probably the Migdol, or tower in Jezreel (Megiddo), on the northeast of that town (Josephus, 'Antiqui...

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....

Verse 2 Chronicles 35:25. _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....

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....

EXPOSITION This chapter of twenty-seven Verses, occupied with the account of Josiah's great Passover (2 Chronicles 35:1), and his death in the battle of Megiddo, waged by Necho King of Egypt with "Carchemish by Euphrates" (2 Chronicles 35:20-14), is paralleled by the ten verses of 2 Kings 23:21-12. 2 CHRONICLES 35:1 THEY KILLED THE PASSOVER ON THE FOURTEENTH … OF THE FIRST MONTH;_ i.e. _on the day appointed originally (Exodus 12:6

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,...

CHAPTER 35 THE KEEPING OF THE PASSOVER AND JOSIAH'S DEATH _ 1. The Passover kept (2 Chronicles 35:1)_ 2. The death of Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:20) In the eighteenth year of his reign, Josiah, like his great-grandfather Hezekiah, kept the Passover. No doubt the reading of the law had made this feast once more an urgent necessity. Moreover they had made a solemn covenant “to walk after the LORD, to keep His commandments, His testimonies and His statutes, and to perform the words of the covenant written in the book.” Therefore in the appointed time, on the fourteenth day of the first month, they kept the memorial feast, the last before the house of Judah was carried into captivity. (Hezekiah's Passover was kept in the second month. See...

2 Chronicles 34:1 to 2 Chronicles 35:27. THE REIGN OF JOSIAH. See notes on 2 Kings 22, 2 Kings 23:1, which form the basis of the Chronicler's account; but he has made many alterations in accordance with his general tendencies. One important difference between the two accounts is that, according to the Chronicler, Josiah's Reformation takes place before the finding of the book of the Law, an obviously illogical sequence; but the Chronicler desires to emphasize Josiah's piety even in his tender years. The description of the celebration of the Passover (2 Chronicles 35:1) is far fuller than that given in...

JEREMIAH LAMENTED. This does not refer to the book of that name (Lamentations), though Josiah is referred to in it (Lamentations 4:20 and Jeremiah 22:10). Compare Zechariah 12:11; 2 Kings 23:31....

(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