The failure of the expedition to Ammaus – an expedition initiated by Ptolemy son of Dorymenes, the stratēgos of Coele Syria and Phoenicia – marked a change in the military situation in Judaea. The Antioch authorities realized that as long as the main army was occupied in the Upper Satrapies, it would be rather difficult to effect a decision and turned therefore to negotiations which lasted about six months (see below pp. 533ff.). The failure of these negotiations brought about the direct intervention of the regent Lysias, who was also in charge of the western part of the kingdom. Lysias personally led the expedition to Judaea, the first of the two. Like the battle of Ammaus, it was conducted at a time when the majority of the Seleucid army stayed with Antiochus Epiphanes in the eastern satrapies, a situation which inevitably severely reduced the numerical strength of the troops sent to Judaea.

There is a certain similarity between the I Maccabees descriptions of Lysias’ two expeditions (4.26–35, 6.28–54): in both Lysias broke into the Judaean Hills from the south, and in both a confrontation with the Jews took place in Beth Zur. However, contrary to the views of a number of scholars, there is no justification for doubting that there were really two expeditions. The resemblance derives from the fact that in both expeditions Lysias tried to solve the problem of the ascent to the Judaean Hills in the same way, and in both he first of all had to break the blockade of Beth Zur, the southernmost fort in Judaea, which could not be bypassed.