ירמיהו, פרק ל״ו, פסוק ל״ב

When a king attempts to destroy a divine message by fire, the prophecy is not silenced; instead, it returns with even greater force. After King Jehoiakim of Judah burned the original prophetic scroll, Jeremiah immediately dictated a new one to his scribe, Baruch son of Neriah. This replacement document contained not only the recovered words of the lost text but also a vast collection of new prophecies.

Some suggest that this expanded document actually formed the foundation for the Book of Jeremiah as it exists today [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. However, the primary approach among commentators links this significant addition to the creation of the Book of Lamentations. The new material was either similar in its sorrowful themes to the original text [ביאור שטיינזלץ] or completely equal in physical length to the first scroll [מצודת דוד].

According to ancient tradition, the original scroll that the king burned consisted of three specific chapters of Lamentations, all structured alphabetically: the first, second, and fourth chapters. The massive addition to the new scroll was the third chapter, which opens with the words "I am the man." Because this third chapter is built on a complex triple structure, where every letter of the alphabet repeats three times in a row, its total length is equal to the other three chapters combined [רש״י, מצודת דוד, רד״ק].

This unique triple structure carries deep symbolic weight. It serves as a direct response to King Jehoiakim's three severe offenses against the original document: disrespecting the word of God, tearing the parchment, and throwing it into the fire. Furthermore, the very choice to write the lamentations in alphabetical order was a deliberate message, emphasizing that the people had sinned against the entire Torah, damaging every letter of its teachings [חומת אנך].

While there is broad agreement on how the chapters were divided between the first and second scrolls, an alternative tradition suggests the original text was much shorter. In this view, the new additions made up nearly the entire Book of Lamentations, extending all the way to its fifth and final chapter [רד״ק].