Ver. 23. And the archers shot at King Josiah, &c.]
For, though disguised, he appeared to be a general
officer, and indeed chief commander, and therefore
aimed at him, and pressed hitn hard: and the king
said to his servants, have me away,for I am wounded;
as Ahab said, when in the like case, 1 Kings xxii. 34.
Ver. 24. And his servants therefore took him out of
that chariot, &c.] Dead, and had him to Jerusalem,
and buried him; see the note on 2 Kings xxiii. 30.
and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah; he
having been so good a king, so tender of them, and
such an happy instrument in restoring the true re-
ligion, and the service of God; this was the sense of
the generality of them, who were sincere in their
mourning; but it is not improbable that those who
were inclined to idolatry were secretly glad, though
they dissembled mourning with the rest.
Vet. 25. And Jeremiah lamented .for Josiah, &c.]
Composed a latnentation for him, which is now lost;
for what is said in Lain. oh. iv. o.0. respects Zedekiah,

and not Josiah: and all the singling men, and all the
singing women, spake of Josiah in their lamentations unto
this day; who were made use of on mournful ocea-,
sions, as the preficce among the Romans, see Jer. ix.
17. these in their mournful ditties used to make men-
tion of his name, and the disaster that befell him: and
made them an ordinance in Israel; an annual constitu-
tion, as the Targum calls it, appointing a solemn
mourning for him once a year, which Jarchi says
was on the 9th 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 col-
lection of lamentations on various subjects then in
being, but since lost.
Vet. 26, 0.7. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and
his goodness, &c.] His piety' towards God, and libe-
rality to the people; of these two verses, see the note
on 2 Kings xxiii. 28.

THIS chapter records the reigns of the four kings of
Judah, and the captivity of the Jews, the short reign of
Jehoahaz, deposed by the king of Egypt, and his brothdr
Eliskim or Jehoiakim set up in his room, ver. 1--4. the
reign of Jehoiakim, who was bound and carried away
by Nebuchadnezzar, ver. 5--8. the reign of Jehoiachin
his son, who also in a short time was taken and carried
to Babylon by the same king, ver. 9, 10. the reign of
Zedekiab, who also rebelled against the king of Ba-
bylon, and he and his people were taken and carried
captive by him for his sins, which are here mentioned,
according to the prophecy of Jeremiah, and where the
Jews continued until the reign of the kingdom of
Persia, ver. 11--21. and the chapter is concluded with
the proclamation of Cyrus king of Persia, and with
which also the next book begins, vet. 22, 23.
Ver. 1. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the
son of Josiah, &c.] Of whose reign, and of the three
following, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, and
the account of them, from hence to the end of ver. 13.
what needs explanation or reconciliation, see the notes
on 2 Kings xxiii. 31--37. and xxiv. 5, 6, 8, 10, 17, 18,
19, 20.
Ver. 14. Moreover, the chief of the priests,, and of the
people, transgressed very much after all the abominations
of the Heathens, &c.] The priests, and even the chief
of them, who should have instructed the people in the
duties of religion, and retained them in the pure
worship of God, these were the ringleaders of idolatry,
who led the people to commit all the idolatries of the
Heathens round about them; and of the people, all
ranks and degrees of them were corrupted with them;
this was their case in several of the preceding reigns,
and now a little before the destruction of them: and
polluted the house of the Lord, which he had hallowed in
Jerusalem; the temple dedicated to his worship there;
this they defiled, by setting up idols in it.
Ver. 15. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to
them by his messengers, &c.] The prophets of the

Lord, to adtnonish them of their idolatries, and to re-
prove them for them, to warn them of the wrath of
God that would come upon them on that account, un-
less they repented and retbrmed; these were at the
beginning of their apostacy, and were successively
continued unto this time, as Ahijah, Elijah, and others,
in the first times of it; A. mos, Isaiah, and others, in the
middle of it; and Jeremiah, Zephaniab, and Ezekiel,
towards the close of it: rising up betimes, and sending;
which is either to be understood of the Lord, and as
expressive of his care and diligence, like the master of
a family, solicitous for the good of it; or of the mes-
sengers, the prophets, who made haste to go or send
their prophecies and instructions to reclaim the people;
the phrase is often to be met with in the prophecy of
Jeremiah, see ch. xi. 7. and the note there: because he
had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place;
being unwilling they should come to ruin, and perish,
and their city and temple be destroyed where they
dwelt.
Ver. 16. But they mocked the messengers Of God, and
despised his words, &c.] Which was the treatment
Jeremiah and Ezekiel frequently met with: and mis-
used his prophets; imprisoned them, as Micaiah and Je-
remiah were: until the wrath of the Lord arose against
his people; which burned like fire in his breast, and
broke out to the consumption of them: till there was
no remedy; or healing of them; there was no re-
claiming or recovering of them, no bringing them to
repentance, and no pardon for them.
Ver. 17. Therefore he brought upon them the king of
the Chaldees, &c.] Nebuchadnezzar; and though it
was the rebellion of Zedekiah which was the cause
and occasion of his coming against them, yet it was the
Lord that moved him to it. and gave him success:
who slew their young men with the sword, in the house of
the sanctuary; in the temple, where they took sanc-
tuary, imagining that sacred place would protect them
from the rage of the enemy, but it did not: and had no