[15] The weeping is to commemorate the death of seasonal fertility, and the cult stresses for the mourning aspect of it.

[17] The cult of Ishtar and Tammuz may have been introduced to the Kingdom of Judah during the reign of King Manasseh[18] and the Old Testament contains numerous allusions to them.

[19] Ezekiel's testimony is the only direct mention of Tammuz in the Hebrew Bible,[20][21] but the cult of Tammuz may also be alluded to in Isaiah 17:10–11:[20][21]"Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow."

This passage may be describing the miniature gardens that women would plant in honor of Tammuz during his festival.

[22] There is no external evidence to support this reading, however,[22] and it is much more probable that this epithet is merely a jibe at Antiochus's notorious cruelty towards all the women who fell in love with him.