The /*PRIORITY statement must immediately precede the JOB statement. If not, or if p is not a number from 0 through 15, JES2 ignores the /*PRIORITY statement and flushes the input stream until the next JOB statement or another /*PRIORITY statement.

In a JES2 network, IBM recommends that the /*PRIORITY statement immediately follow the /*XMIT statement. If you code any other statement between /*XMIT and JOB, JES2 will ignore the statement and issue an error message.