But you have utterly rejected us; You are very angry against us.
From this verse it is evident, that Jeremiah had composed a funeral elegy on Josiah: but, from the complexion of this Book, it is most evident that it was not composed on the death of Josiah, but upon the desolations of Jerusalem, c., as has already been noted. His lamentation for Josiah is therefore lost. It appears also, that on particular occasions, perhaps anniversaries, these lamentations were sung by men and women singers, who performed their several parts for these were all alternate or responsive songs. And it is very likely, that this book was sung in the same way; the men commencing with aleph, the women responding with beth and so on. Several of this sort of songs are still extant. We have those which David composed on the death of his son Absalom, and on the death of his friend Jonathan. And we have those made by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, on the desolation of Egypt, Tyre, Sidon, and Babylon. See Isaiah 14:4-5; Isaiah 15:1-9; Isaiah 16:1-14; Jeremiah 7:29; Jeremiah 9:10; Jeremiah 48:32; Ezekiel 19:1; Ezekiel 28:11; Ezekiel 32:2; Jeremiah 9:17. Besides these, we have fragments of others in different places; and references to some, which are now finally lost.