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.