Ezra 6:20

20 For the Kohanim and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were pure: and they killed the Pesach for all the children of the captivity, and for their brothers the Kohanim, 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Ezra 6:20 In-Context

18 They set the Kohanim in their divisions, and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God, which is at Yerushalayim; as it is written in the book of Moshe.

19 The children of the captivity kept the Pesach on the fourteenth [day] of the first month.

20 For the Kohanim and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were pure: and they killed the Pesach for all the children of the captivity, and for their brothers the Kohanim, and for themselves.

21 The children of Yisra'el who had come again out of the captivity, and all such as had separated themselves to them from the filthiness of the nations of the land, to seek the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, ate,

22 and kept the feast of matzah seven days with joy: for the LORD had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king of Ashshur to them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Yisra'el.