25. lamented] i.e. “composed (or uttered) an elegy.” The Hebrew word (ķōnēn) suggests formal composition, and the actual words of lamentation are often given, as in 2 Samuel i. 17 ff., iii. 33, 34; Ezekiel xxvii. 33, xxxii. 2, 16. The elegy in question is not preserved in the book of Jeremiah or elsewhere. Doubtless the Chronicler or his source had real grounds for his statement about the popular Songs of Lament for Josiah, and we may suppose that one of these, rightly or wrongly, was ascribed to Jeremiah.
an ordinance] compare 2 Samuel i. 18.
in the lamentations] In some lost work, not in our canonical book of the Lamentations, for the contents of the canonical book lend no support whatever to the view that it is referred to here (see further Encyclopedia Britannica¹¹, s.v. Lamentations, p. 128).
26, 27 (= 1 Esdras i. 33; 2 Kings xxiii. 25, 28).
The Epilogue to Josiah’s Reign.
²⁶Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which is written in the law of the Lord, ²⁷and his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
26. according to that which is written] Compare the strong terms used in 2 Kings xxiii. 25, “like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart ... according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.”
Chapter XXXVI.
1–4 (= 1 Esdras i. 34–38; 2 Kings xxiii. 30b–34).
The Reign of Jehoahaz.
¹Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father’s stead in Jerusalem.