A Pause in Fighting to Observe Shavuot

2 Maccabees 12:29, 31–32

Late 2nd Century BCE

29Setting out from there, they hastened to Scythopolis, which is seventy-five miles [120 km] from Jerusalem. [ . . . ] 31[T]‌hey thanked them and exhorted them to be well disposed to their race in the future also. Then they went up to Jerusalem, as the festival of weeks was close at hand.

32After the festival called Pentecost, they hurried against Gorgias, the governor of Idumea.

Translation from the New Revised Standard Version.

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New Revised Standard Version Bible copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

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This passage takes place after the Hasmonean revolt against Antiochus IV Epiphanes, during the reign of his successor, Antiochus V Eupator, when the Hasmonean forces under Judah Maccabee continue to find themselves embroiled in conflict. Judah leads his forces to Scythopolis (the Greek name for Beth-shean) in the Jordan Valley, but when the Jewish residents tell them that the people of the city have been kind to Jews, they leave in peace and go to Jerusalem to celebrate Shavuot (called Pentecost in Greek). After the festival, they move south to Idumea, where they do battle against the Idumean governor Gorgias, who has been hostile to the Jews and attacked them repeatedly (2 Maccabees 10:14–15). The pause to observe Shavuot in Jerusalem is one of many instances in which 2 Maccabees emphasizes the piety of Judah and his followers. 

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