The paper examines the character of the drinking party called τὸ πότος in Jdt 6:21. The organisation of τὸ πότος by the Jewish leaders in times of an imminent military threat has puzzled scholars. To solve the riddle, some commentators have argued for the ironical ends of the scene, while others have opted for the aspect of hospitality of the event. Our study proposes to consider the drinking banquet as a sort of the marzeaḥ feast whose attested Greek lexical equivalent was the συμπόσιον or πότος. According to extra-biblical and biblical evidence, the marzeaḥ was an institution which was widespread in the ancient west Semitic world and the Israelites in the monarchic era as well as the Jews in post-monarchic times practiced the feast too. In the Judith story, the πότος held by the Jews contrasts with another πότος organised by the heathens (12:10; 13:1). The drinking banquet of the Jews ironically meets the socio-religious standards of the Greek institution of συμπόσιον/πότος better than the πότος of the pagans.