And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah,.... Composed a lamentation for him, which is now lost; for what is said in Lam 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 Jer 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.