Ezra 6:20

20 Since the priests and Levites had cleansed themselves, all of them were [now] clean. They killed the Passover lambs for all the people who had returned from exile, for the rest of the priests, and for themselves.

Ezra 6:20 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 6:20

For the priests and the Levites were purified together, all of
them were pure
They were all to a man pure, and all purified as one man; all were of one mind to purify themselves, and took care to do it, and did it with as much dispatch as if only one man was purified; so that they were more generally prepared for service now than in the times of Hezekiah, ( 2 Chronicles 29:34 ) ( 30:3 )

and killed the passover for all the children of the captivity,
and for their brethren the priests and for themselves;
which seems to have been done by the Levites, for themselves and for the priests, and for all the people, who were not so pure as the priests and Levites; or otherwise they might have killed it themselves, ( Exodus 12:6 ) , as Bochart ^F14 thinks.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F14 Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 50. col. 576.

Ezra 6:20 In-Context

18 The priests were assigned to their divisions and the Levites to their groups [to lead] the worship of God in Jerusalem by following the directions written in the Book of Moses.

19 On the fourteenth day of the first month, those who had returned from exile celebrated the Passover.

20 Since the priests and Levites had cleansed themselves, all of them were [now] clean. They killed the Passover lambs for all the people who had returned from exile, for the rest of the priests, and for themselves.

21 The lambs were eaten by the Israelites who had returned from exile and by all who had separated themselves from the unclean practices of the non-Jews in the land to worship the LORD God of Israel.

22 So for seven days they celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread because the LORD had made them joyful. The LORD had made the king of Assyria change his mind so that he supported the people in their work on the temple of God, the God of Israel.