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When a foreign official threatens the temple in 2 Maccabees, the young women normally kept indoors rush into the streets to pray. 3 Maccabees describes the women of Jerusalem the same way as the Egyptian king Philopator threatens the sanctuary.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Maccabees 3:19
Deuterocanon
18 People also hurried out of their houses in crowds to make a general supplication because the holy place was about to be brought into dishonor. 19 Women, girded with sackcloth under their breasts, thronged the streets. Some of the young women who were kept indoors ran together to the gates, and some to the walls, while others peered out of the windows. 20 And holding up their hands to heaven, they all made supplication.
3 Maccabees 1:18
Pseudepigrapha
17 those who remained behind in the city were agitated and hurried out, supposing that something mysterious was occurring. 18 Young women who had been secluded in their chambers rushed out with their mothers, sprinkled their hair with dust, j and filled the streets with groans and lamentations. 19 Those women who had recently been arrayed for marriage abandoned the bridal chambers k prepared for wedded union, and, neglecting proper modesty, in a disorderly rush flocked together in the city.
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Notes and References
... in the parallel accounts of the reactions of the city to the plans of Philopator and Heliodorus, each narrative portrays how the people 'hurry out' (ἐκπεδάω) of their houses in order to pray for the deliverance of the temple (2 Maccabees 3:18 || 3 Maccabees 1:17). Both stories also include a notice that certain 'women who were kept inside' (2 Maccabees 3:19 – αἱ κατάκλειστοι τῶν παρθένων || 3 Maccabees 1:18 – αἵ τε κατάκλειστοι παρθένοι) came out in order to pray for the divine protection of the temple. During their prayers, either women (2 Maccabees 3:20) or Simon (3 Maccabees 2:1) stretch out their arms (προτείνω τὰς χεῖρας). ...
Trotter, Jonathan Robert
The Jerusalem Temple in Diaspora: Jewish Practice and Thought during the Second Temple Period
(pp. 184-185) Brill, 2019
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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