¹⁸ Therefore thus says the Lord concerning King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah:

⁶ Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them; there shall be no gashing, no shaving of the head for them.^(A)

³⁰ He laid the body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!”^(A)

⁴ They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried; they shall become like dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall become food for the birds of the air and for the wild animals of the earth.^(A)

⁵ you shall die in peace. And as spices were burned^[a] for your ancestors, the earlier kings who preceded you, so they shall burn spices^[b] for you and lament for you, saying, “Alas, lord!” For I have spoken the word, says the Lord.^(A)

²⁵ Jeremiah also uttered a lament for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day. They made these a custom in Israel; they are recorded in the Laments.^(A)

¹⁹ In the course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great agony. His people made no fire in his honor like the fires made for his ancestors.^{(A) 20} He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign; he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He departed with no one’s regret. They buried him in the city of David but not in the tombs of the kings.^(B)

³³ The king lamented for Abner, saying,

And all the people wept over him again. ³⁵ Then all the people came to persuade David to eat something while it was still day, but David swore, saying, “So may God do to me and more, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun goes down!”^{(B) 36} All the people took notice of it, and it pleased them, just as everything the king did pleased all the people. ³⁷ So all the people and all Israel understood that day that the king had no part in the killing of Abner son of Ner. ³⁸ And the king said to his servants, “Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?