2 Chronicles · Chapter 35

THE SOLEMN PASSOVER, 1-19.

In accordance with his manner of dwelling more fully on what is religious and ritualistic, the chronicler gives the greater part of this chapter to a description of Josiah’s passover, while the writer of Kings despatches it in three verses. 2 Kings 23:21-23. It was a most solemn and imposing service, and in the strict adherence to the law in which it was observed, the peculiar interest attending it, and perhaps also in the numbers that were present, it was distinguished above all other passovers held since the days of the Judges. It made Josiah’s eighteenth year a most memorable epoch, verse 19.

1. Fourteenth day of the first month — The time prescribed in the law, (Exodus 13:6; Leviticus 23:5,) and thus unlike the passover of Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 30:2.

2. Set the priests in their charges — Arranged them according to their several divisions, or classes, and indicated the duties for which each class would be held responsible.

V. 3. The house-In the holy of holies. Whence, it may seem, it had been removed, by some of the wicked kings of Judah, possibly by Josiah’s father Amon. A burden-Or, that it might not be a burden, so these words are to be joined with the former, as the reason why Solomon built this house, that the ark might have a constant and fixed habitation, and not need to be carried from place to place upon their shoulders, as it had been done while it was in the tabernacle. Ministers must look upon themselves as servants both to Christ, and to the people, for his sake. They must take care and take pains, and lay themselves out to the utmost, both for the honour and glory of God, and for the benefit of his people, not as having dominion over their faith, but as helpers of their holiness and joy.

Verse 3. Put the holy ark in the house] It is likely that the priests had secured this when they found that the idolatrous kings were determined to destroy every thing that might lead the people to the worship of the true God. And now, as all appears to be well established, the ark is ordered to be put into its own place.

For an ample account of this passover and the reformation that was then made, see on 2 Kings 23:1, &c., and the places marked in the margin.

Verse 3. That taught all Israel which were holy — That is, the Levites were holy unto the Lord. And therefore it may be rendered, and were holy, &c., that is, peculiarly dedicated to this service, of ministering to the priests, and instructing the people. Put the holy ark in the house, &c. — It appears from this that the ark had been removed from its place; but by whom or when cannot now be said. It shall not be a burden upon your shoulders — That is, hereafter. For they were to carry it to a settled place, there to remain: and then they would be obliged to bear it no further on their shoulders, as they had done before it was fixed in the temple. Serve now the Lord, &c. — Ministers must look upon themselves as servants both to Christ, and to the people for his sake. They must take care and take pains, and lay themselves out to the utmost, both for the honour and glory of God, and for the benefit of his people, not as having dominion over their faith, but as helpers of their holiness and joy.

Verse 3. Put the holy ark in the house. Perhaps in idolatrous times the ark had been removed: and as the copy of the law written by the hand of Moses had been concealed, we need wonder the less. However, Tremelius reads this text, “Put the holy things before the ark.”

3. The Levites that taught all Israel — Certain Levites were especially intrusted with the work of teaching the people the law of God. 2 Chronicles 17:9. Which were holy unto the Lord — None but holy and consecrated ones could properly approach to or bear the ark. Put the holy ark in the house — When and how the ark had been removed from its proper place in the temple is not recorded. Keil’s explanation, that the words do not mean a material moving of the ark, but are to be understood in the sense of “Overlook, leave it in the temple, for you are no longer to carry it on your shoulders,” is far from satisfactory, and amounts to no more than “Leave it in the place where it has hitherto stood;” a sense which he himself admits the words cannot bear. Equally untenable is the rabbinical opinion, that the words are a command to remove the ark to some subterranean chamber of the temple, where it might be safe in case the temple were destroyed. The words clearly imply that the ark had, for some reason, been removed from its proper place in the oracle, or holy of holies, which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; and most interpreters suppose that this had taken place during the godless reign of Amon, or, perhaps, of Manasseh, when it was removed either by them to make room for idolatrous statues, or by some pious priests and Levites in order to protect it from profanation and destruction. The latter supposition is the more probable, for as the book of the law, whose proper place was in the ark, had been removed and hidden in a secret place of the temple, so the ark itself may also have been concealed. It shall not be a burden upon your shoulders — The Levites, perhaps, had the impression that it would be appropriate, and in keeping with most ancient usage, to bear the ark about the temple and its courts at the passover; but Josiah reminded them that since Solomon had built a settled place for the ark to abide in, it was no longer to be borne about.

4. According to the writing of David… and… of Solomon — A written arrangement of the families and courses of the Levites which had been made by David and Solomon. Comp. 2 Chronicles 8:14.

V. 5. Stand-Or, minister, (as that word is frequently used) in the court of the priests. According-According to the several families both of the people, whom he calls their brethren, lest they should despise them, or grudge to serve them, and of the Levites. For the passover was to be eaten by the several families according to their numbers, and therefore he commands these persons, that when the paschal lambs were brought to them to be killed, they might so order the matter, that they might be distributed to the several families whether of the Levitical or other tribes.

Verse 5. And stand in the holy place — Or minister (as that word is frequently used) in the court of the priests. According to the division of the families — According to the several families, both of the people, whom he calls their brethren, lest they should despise them, or grudge to serve them, and of the Levites. For the passover was to be eaten by the several families according to their numbers, and therefore he commands these persons, that when the paschal lambs were brought to them to be killed, they should so order the matter, that they might be distributed to the several families, whether of the Levites or other tribes.

THE SOLEMN PASSOVER, 1-19.

In accordance with his manner of dwelling more fully on what is religious and ritualistic, the chronicler gives the greater part of this chapter to a description of Josiah’s passover, while the writer of Kings despatches it in three verses. 2 Kings 23:21-23. It was a most solemn and imposing service, and in the strict adherence to the law in which it was observed, the peculiar interest attending it, and perhaps also in the numbers that were present, it was distinguished above all other passovers held since the days of the Judges. It made Josiah’s eighteenth year a most memorable epoch, verse 19.

1. Fourteenth day of the first month — The time prescribed in the law, (Exodus 13:6; Leviticus 23:5,) and thus unlike the passover of Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 30:2.

Verses 6, 7. Prepare your brethren — By purifying them, and exciting them to fit themselves for so great and solemn a work. Josiah gave to the people lambs and kids — For either of these might be used for the paschal-offering. And three thousand bullocks — Which were to be offered after the lambs upon the several days of the feast of unleavened bread.

THE SOLEMN PASSOVER, 1-19.

In accordance with his manner of dwelling more fully on what is religious and ritualistic, the chronicler gives the greater part of this chapter to a description of Josiah’s passover, while the writer of Kings despatches it in three verses. 2 Kings 23:21-23. It was a most solemn and imposing service, and in the strict adherence to the law in which it was observed, the peculiar interest attending it, and perhaps also in the numbers that were present, it was distinguished above all other passovers held since the days of the Judges. It made Josiah’s eighteenth year a most memorable epoch, verse 19.

1. Fourteenth day of the first month — The time prescribed in the law, (Exodus 13:6; Leviticus 23:5,) and thus unlike the passover of Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 30:2.

Verses 6, 7. Prepare your brethren — By purifying them, and exciting them to fit themselves for so great and solemn a work. Josiah gave to the people lambs and kids — For either of these might be used for the paschal-offering. And three thousand bullocks — Which were to be offered after the lambs upon the several days of the feast of unleavened bread.

7. Josiah gave… lambs and kids… and three thousand bullocks — The lambs and kids were for the paschal feast, (comp. Exodus 12:5,) and the bullocks for an additional freewill offering, and for sacrificial meals during the seven days of the feast.

V. 8. Princes-Not the political, but ecclesiastical princes, or the chief of the priests and Levites, whose names here follow. Levites-For the use of any of the families of them, as need should be. For they supposed the thirty thousand which the king had given were not sufficient for all the families.

Verse 8. And his princes gave willingly — Not the political, but ecclesiastical princes, or the chief of the priests and Levites, whose names here follow. Unto the people, priests, and Levites — For the use of any of the families of them, as need should be. For they supposed the thirty-thousand, which the king had given, were not sufficient for all the families.

8. His princes gave willingly — That is, as appears in the sequel, the priestly and Levitical princes; the former giving to the priests, the latter to the Levites. As the king contributed of the flock all the lambs and kids for the passover offerings, (verse 7,) the gifts of the princes must have been, like the king’s offering of bullocks, for the freewill offerings and various sacrificial meals. Compare the account of Hezekiah’s passover, 2 Chronicles 30:13-26.

THE SOLEMN PASSOVER, 1-19.

In accordance with his manner of dwelling more fully on what is religious and ritualistic, the chronicler gives the greater part of this chapter to a description of Josiah’s passover, while the writer of Kings despatches it in three verses. 2 Kings 23:21-23. It was a most solemn and imposing service, and in the strict adherence to the law in which it was observed, the peculiar interest attending it, and perhaps also in the numbers that were present, it was distinguished above all other passovers held since the days of the Judges. It made Josiah’s eighteenth year a most memorable epoch, verse 19.

1. Fourteenth day of the first month — The time prescribed in the law, (Exodus 13:6; Leviticus 23:5,) and thus unlike the passover of Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 30:2.

THE SOLEMN PASSOVER, 1-19.

In accordance with his manner of dwelling more fully on what is religious and ritualistic, the chronicler gives the greater part of this chapter to a description of Josiah’s passover, while the writer of Kings despatches it in three verses. 2 Kings 23:21-23. It was a most solemn and imposing service, and in the strict adherence to the law in which it was observed, the peculiar interest attending it, and perhaps also in the numbers that were present, it was distinguished above all other passovers held since the days of the Judges. It made Josiah’s eighteenth year a most memorable epoch, verse 19.

1. Fourteenth day of the first month — The time prescribed in the law, (Exodus 13:6; Leviticus 23:5,) and thus unlike the passover of Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 30:2.

Verse 11. They killed the passover] The people themselves might slay their own paschal lambs, and then present the blood to the priests, that they might sprinkle it before the altar; and the Levites flayed them, and made them ready for dressing.

Verse 11. And the Levites flayed them — Which they did, (though properly that work belonged to the priests,) because the priests, who were sanctified, were not sufficient for it, there being so many thousands of the cattle; and they were fully employed in the killing of the sacrifices, and the sprinkling of the blood, which was more properly the priests’ work than the other.

THE SOLEMN PASSOVER, 1-19.

In accordance with his manner of dwelling more fully on what is religious and ritualistic, the chronicler gives the greater part of this chapter to a description of Josiah’s passover, while the writer of Kings despatches it in three verses. 2 Kings 23:21-23. It was a most solemn and imposing service, and in the strict adherence to the law in which it was observed, the peculiar interest attending it, and perhaps also in the numbers that were present, it was distinguished above all other passovers held since the days of the Judges. It made Josiah’s eighteenth year a most memorable epoch, verse 19.

1. Fourteenth day of the first month — The time prescribed in the law, (Exodus 13:6; Leviticus 23:5,) and thus unlike the passover of Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 30:2.

V. 12. Removed-Some of the lesser cattle; for these also might be offered as burnt-offerings, Leviticus 1:10, and hence it may seem that all these small cattle were not given for paschal-lambs, but were to be offered as burnt-offerings for the people. And these they put apart lest they should be confounded with them which were for another use; and, that they might not be hindered from that which was their present work, that they might give, the paschal-lambs or kids. To offer-These words may belong to the last words, and to the paschal-lambs, which they were first to offer to the Lord, by killing them and sprinkling the blood, and then to give to the people; though the giving be here mentioned before the offering, such transpositions being usual in scripture. Oxen-As they did with the lesser cattle; they removed those oxen which were to be offered as burnt-offerings, from those which were to be offered as peace-offerings.

Verse 12. And they removed the burnt-offerings — That part of the paschal lambs which was to be burned, which they despatched as soon as possible, that they might give that part which was to be eaten to each family. And so they did with the oxen — All of which were not given for peace-offerings, but some for burnt-offerings: which they also offered as fast as they could, that they might give to each family a portion sufficient for them to feast on.

12. They removed the burnt offerings — That is, removed from the slain animals such portions as were to be offered on the altar. “The burnt offerings here,” says Bertheau, “can only mean such portions of the paschal lamb as were to be burned upon the altar of burnt offerings; no doubt the same parts as were cut off and burned in the case of sheep and goats when they were offered as thank offerings. Leviticus 2:6-17. As those portions were burned in precisely the same manner as the burnt offerings, (Leviticus 1:9, 17; 3:11, 16,) they might very well be called hl[h, the burnt offering, so that this word is used here in the sense of hva, offering, or sacrifice in general. This explanation is confirmed by the words at the end of the verse, and so did they with the oxen. The oxen themselves, therefore, were not offered as burnt offerings, but the parts appointed were cut off and burned, the rest of the flesh being cooked and eaten.” Verse 13.

Verses 13, 14. But the other holy offerings sod they in pots — Those from which the burnt-offerings were removed, (verse 12,) namely, the peace-offerings, part of which fell to the share of the offerer, who was Josiah, and, by his gift, to the people. Afterward they made ready — To wit, the paschal lambs, and their part of the peace-offerings.

THE SOLEMN PASSOVER, 1-19.

In accordance with his manner of dwelling more fully on what is religious and ritualistic, the chronicler gives the greater part of this chapter to a description of Josiah’s passover, while the writer of Kings despatches it in three verses. 2 Kings 23:21-23. It was a most solemn and imposing service, and in the strict adherence to the law in which it was observed, the peculiar interest attending it, and perhaps also in the numbers that were present, it was distinguished above all other passovers held since the days of the Judges. It made Josiah’s eighteenth year a most memorable epoch, verse 19.

1. Fourteenth day of the first month — The time prescribed in the law, (Exodus 13:6; Leviticus 23:5,) and thus unlike the passover of Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 30:2.

Verses 13, 14. But the other holy offerings sod they in pots — Those from which the burnt-offerings were removed, (verse 12,) namely, the peace-offerings, part of which fell to the share of the offerer, who was Josiah, and, by his gift, to the people. Afterward they made ready — To wit, the paschal lambs, and their part of the peace-offerings.

THE SOLEMN PASSOVER, 1-19.

In accordance with his manner of dwelling more fully on what is religious and ritualistic, the chronicler gives the greater part of this chapter to a description of Josiah’s passover, while the writer of Kings despatches it in three verses. 2 Kings 23:21-23. It was a most solemn and imposing service, and in the strict adherence to the law in which it was observed, the peculiar interest attending it, and perhaps also in the numbers that were present, it was distinguished above all other passovers held since the days of the Judges. It made Josiah’s eighteenth year a most memorable epoch, verse 19.

1. Fourteenth day of the first month — The time prescribed in the law, (Exodus 13:6; Leviticus 23:5,) and thus unlike the passover of Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 30:2.

THE SOLEMN PASSOVER, 1-19.

In accordance with his manner of dwelling more fully on what is religious and ritualistic, the chronicler gives the greater part of this chapter to a description of Josiah’s passover, while the writer of Kings despatches it in three verses. 2 Kings 23:21-23. It was a most solemn and imposing service, and in the strict adherence to the law in which it was observed, the peculiar interest attending it, and perhaps also in the numbers that were present, it was distinguished above all other passovers held since the days of the Judges. It made Josiah’s eighteenth year a most memorable epoch, verse 19.

1. Fourteenth day of the first month — The time prescribed in the law, (Exodus 13:6; Leviticus 23:5,) and thus unlike the passover of Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 30:2.

THE SOLEMN PASSOVER, 1-19.

In accordance with his manner of dwelling more fully on what is religious and ritualistic, the chronicler gives the greater part of this chapter to a description of Josiah’s passover, while the writer of Kings despatches it in three verses. 2 Kings 23:21-23. It was a most solemn and imposing service, and in the strict adherence to the law in which it was observed, the peculiar interest attending it, and perhaps also in the numbers that were present, it was distinguished above all other passovers held since the days of the Judges. It made Josiah’s eighteenth year a most memorable epoch, verse 19.

1. Fourteenth day of the first month — The time prescribed in the law, (Exodus 13:6; Leviticus 23:5,) and thus unlike the passover of Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 30:2.

THE SOLEMN PASSOVER, 1-19.

In accordance with his manner of dwelling more fully on what is religious and ritualistic, the chronicler gives the greater part of this chapter to a description of Josiah’s passover, while the writer of Kings despatches it in three verses. 2 Kings 23:21-23. It was a most solemn and imposing service, and in the strict adherence to the law in which it was observed, the peculiar interest attending it, and perhaps also in the numbers that were present, it was distinguished above all other passovers held since the days of the Judges. It made Josiah’s eighteenth year a most memorable epoch, verse 19.

1. Fourteenth day of the first month — The time prescribed in the law, (Exodus 13:6; Leviticus 23:5,) and thus unlike the passover of Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 30:2.

V. 18. Like to that-The whole solemnity was performed exactly according to the law, whereas in Hezekiah’s passover there were several irregularities: likewise Josiah furnished the whole congregation with beasts for sacrifice at his own charge, which no king ever did before him.

Verse 18. There was no passover like to that] “That which distinguished this passover from all the former was,” says Calmet, “the great liberality of Josiah, who distributed to his people a greater number of victims than either David or Solomon had done.”

Verse 18. There was no passover like to that — The whole solemnity was performed exactly according to the law, whereas in Hezekiah’s passover there were several irregularities: likewise Josiah furnished the whole congregation with beasts for sacrifice at his own charge, which no king ever did before him.

18. No passover like to that — Many passovers had been held in Israel since the days of Samuel, but none so memorable as this one. There was such a solemnity attending it, and such a careful adherence to the directions of the law, and so many representatives of the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel… and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and withal, it was so preceded and followed by a dark record of national apostasy and sin, that it was remembered in Israelitish history as a most bright and blessed ray of light that had streamed through the thick darkness of the deepening night of Judah’s decline and fall.

The account of Josiah’s death (verses 20-27) is somewhat more fully given here than in Kings, but the principal differences have been sufficiently noted at 2 Kings 23:26-30.

THE SOLEMN PASSOVER, 1-19.

In accordance with his manner of dwelling more fully on what is religious and ritualistic, the chronicler gives the greater part of this chapter to a description of Josiah’s passover, while the writer of Kings despatches it in three verses. 2 Kings 23:21-23. It was a most solemn and imposing service, and in the strict adherence to the law in which it was observed, the peculiar interest attending it, and perhaps also in the numbers that were present, it was distinguished above all other passovers held since the days of the Judges. It made Josiah’s eighteenth year a most memorable epoch, verse 19.

1. Fourteenth day of the first month — The time prescribed in the law, (Exodus 13:6; Leviticus 23:5,) and thus unlike the passover of Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 30:2.

V. 20. After all-When he and his people hoped that God was reconciled, and the foundation of a lasting happiness laid, their hopes were quickly blasted. So much are men often mistaken in their judgments about the designs of God’s providence.

Verse 20. Necho king of Egypt] Pharaoh the lame, says the Targum.

Verse 20. After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple — When he and his people hoped that God was reconciled, and the foundation of a lasting happiness laid, their hopes were quickly blasted. So much are men often mistaken in their judgments about the designs of God’s providence. To fight against Charchemish — Which the Assyrian had lately taken from the king of Egypt, of which he boasts, Isaiah 10:9.

V. 21. The house-Against the house of the king of Assyria, between whom and me there is war. It is at thy peril, if thou engage against one who has both a better army, and a better cause and God on his side.

Verse 21. God commanded me to make haste] The Targum gives a curious turn to this and the following verse: “My idol commanded me to make haste; refrain therefore from me and my idol which is with me, that he betray thee not. When he heard him mention his idol, he would not go back; and he hearkened not unto the words of Necho, which he spake concerning his idol.” Here is the rabbinical excuse for the conduct of Josiah.

Verse 21. I come not against thee, but against the house wherewith I have war — Against the house of the king of Assyria, between whom and me there is war. For God commanded me to make haste — Therefore, give me no hinderance. Some think he only pretended this, because he knew Josiah had a great reverence for God, and in obedience to him might desist from his purpose. And the Targum, with some of the Jews, thinks he called his own idol by the name of God; though Kimchi thinks, and the event makes it most probable, that he spoke of the true God, who perhaps admonished him in a dream, as he did Abimelech, or sent him a message to go against the Assyrians by the Prophet Jeremiah, many of whose prophecies are directed to foreign nations. Forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, &c. — It is at thy peril if thou engage against one who has both a better army, and a better cause, and God on his side.

Ver. 21. I come not against thee. Pharaoh dissuaded Josiah from fighting, by alleging the command of his god to make haste against the Assyrians. Meanwhile the prophet Jeremiah had warned Josiah not to fight, and avowed that he spake from the mouth of the Lord. The four next short-reigning kings of Judah seemed to reign only to allow Jerusalem to fill up the measure of her sins.

21. God commanded me to make haste — This message of Necho to Josiah is preserved only by the chronicler, and is specially interesting as coming from a heathen king. Some have thought that Necho here referred to some prophecy of Jeremiah, (compare 1 Esdras 1:28,) or of some other prophet. But the words are appropriate in the mouth of a monotheistic sovereign, who regarded himself as a favourite of heaven. In an inscription of an Egyptian king of about this period occur the following words, as translated by the Revelation Canon Cook: “Didst thou not know that the Divine shade was over me? I have not acted without his knowledge; he commanded my acts.”

V. 22. Hearkened not-How can we think to prosper in our ways, if we do not acknowledge God in them!

Verse 22. Josiah would not turn his face from him — Being, peradventure, encouraged to go out against him by a misinterpretation of that promise made to him, chap. 34:28, Thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace. Thus God overrules the errors and miscarriages of men to the accomplishment of his own counsels. But disguised himself — Changed his habit, that he might not give his enemies the advantage of aiming at his person, which he wisely thought they would do, that being a likely course to end their trouble, as indeed it proved. And hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God — Either, 1st, which Pharaoh sent to him in the name of God; or rather, 2d, which Pharaoh received from the mouth of God; who was pleased, some way or other, to impart his mind to him, and which Pharaoh acquainted him with by the command of God. And therefore Josiah is here blamed for not hearkening to this message: although, if he sinned herein, it was only a sin of ignorance, for he did not know that God had spoken this to Pharaoh, and was not bound to believe his testimony, which he had good reason to suspect in this matter. Yet, it seems, he ought so far to have regarded it, as to have inquired into the mind of God about it, which he neglected to do, and therefore cannot be wholly excused. How can we think to prosper in our ways, if we do not acknowledge God in them?

Verse 24. The second chariot] Perhaps this means no more than that they took Josiah out of his own chariot and put him into another, either for secrecy, or because his own had been disabled. The chariot into which he was put might have been that of the officer or aid-de-camp who attended his master to the war. See Clarke’s note on “2 Kings 22:20”.

Verse 24. And put him in the second chariot — It was the custom of war, in former times, for great officers to have led horses with them in battle, that if one failed they might mount another. And, in like manner, we may presume, that when it became a fashion to fight in chariots, all great commanders had an empty one following them, to which they might betake themselves, if any mischief befell the other. They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died — Bishop Sherlock observes, that Josiah had so good a character in Scripture, that both Jews and Christians have been at a loss to account for his unfortunate end. The learned Dr. Prideaux endeavours to justify his conduct in opposing the passage of the king of Egypt, because it was a service due to the king of Assyria, to whom Josiah was a vassal. “Be it so,” says Dr. Dodd, “yet his duty to the king of Assyria could not dissolve his dependance on a higher Master. He went to war as vassal of the king of Assyria, but did he ask counsel of God as king of Judah? Or was he attended to the war with such forces only as the kings of Judah might lawfully use? That he had chariots and horsemen, appears plainly from this account of his death. That this was the true or only cause of his misfortune, I dare not affirm; for I have no express authority to support me in affirming it: but this I see, that he was found in the day of battle, not with the equipage of a king of Judah, but surrounded with forces which the law of his God had forbidden him to trust to, and which had often proved a strength fatal to his ancestors.” See Bishop Sherlock’s Dissertation on the Use and Intent of Prophecy, at the end.

V. 25. 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.

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.”

Verse 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.

25. The lamentations — See Introduction.

Verse 26. The rest of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness — His piety toward God, and his benignity, clemency, and kindness toward all his subjects, being of a most tender and mild disposition, both toward God and toward men, 2 Chronicles 34:27. According to that which was written in the law — Which he made his rule in all his actions. The revelation which God has given us of his mind and will is the only true standard by which we can safely walk. All other rules may deceive us, and will often either leave us in doubt or uncertainty how to act, or will lead us wrong. But the word of God is a sure and unerring guide, a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our paths. Let us walk by this, and we shall please God in time and enjoy him in eternity.

Verse 27. And his deeds, first and last] “The former things which he did in his childhood, and the latter things which he did in his youth; and all the judgments which he pronounced from his eighth year, when he came to the kingdom, to his eighteenth, when he was grown up, and began to repair the sanctuary of the LORD; and all that he brought of his substance to the hand of judgment, purging both the house of Israel and Judah from all uncleanness; behold, they are written in the book of the Kings of the house of Israel, and of the house of Judah.”-Targum. These general histories are lost; but in the books of Kings and Chronicles we have the leading facts. II CHRONICLES