Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
Weep not for the dead - i:e., not so much for Josiah, who was taken away by death from the evil to come, as God promised to him (2 Kings 22:20; Isaiah 57:1), as for Shallum or Jehoahaz, his son (2 Kings 23:30). who, after a three months reign, was carried off by Pharaoh-necho into Egypt, never to see his native land again (2 Kings 23:31-34). Dying saints are justly to be envied, while living sinners are to be pitied. The allusion is to the great weeping of the people at the death of Josiah, and as a perpetual "ordinance" on each anniversary of it, in which Jeremiah himself took a prominent part (2 Chronicles 35:24-25), having probably written a dirge of "lamentations," to be chanted by "the singing men and the singing women" on the occasion. The name "Shallum" is here given in irony to Jehoahaz, who reigned but three months; as if he were a second Shallum, son of Jabesh, who reigned only one month in Samaria (2 Kings 15:13; 2 Chronicles 36:1-4). Shallum means retribution, a name of no good omen to him (Grotius); originally the people called him Shallom, indicative of peace and prosperity. But Jeremiah applies it in irony. 1 Chronicles 3:15 calls Shallum the fourth son of Josiah. The people raised him to the throne before his brother Eliakim or Jehoiakim, though the latter was the older (2 Kings 23:31; 2 Kings 23:36; 2 Chronicles 36:1); perhaps on account of Jehoiakim's extravagance (Jeremiah 22:13; Jeremiah 22:15). Jehoiakim was put in Shallum's (Jehoahaz) stead by Pharaoh-necho. Jeconiah his son succeeded. Zedekiah (Mattaniah), uncle of Jeconiah, and brother of Jehoiakim and Jehoahaz, was last of all raised to the throne by Nebuchadnezzar.
He shall not return - the people perhaps entertained hopes of Shallum's return from Egypt, in which case they would replace him on the throne, and thereby free themselves from the oppressive taxes imposed by Jehoiakim