Each chapter of Lamentations is an alphabetic acrostic — one stanza per Hebrew letter. But chapters 2, 3 and 4 put פ (pe) before ע (ayin), reversing the alphabet’s own order (chapter 1 keeps it straight). Not a scribal slip — the same inversion recurs across three chapters, and may preserve an older Hebrew letter-order attested in early inscriptions (Izbet Sartah, Kuntillet Ajrud). A strange true thing, surfaced in the Martini’s acrostic labels and left exactly as it stands.