Ezra 6:20

20 For the priests and the Levites were purified together, all of them were pure, and killed the passover for all the sons of the captivity and for their brethren, 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Ezra 6:20 In-Context

18 And they set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their courses over the work of God, which is at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.

19 And the sons of the captivity kept the passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month.

20 For the priests and the Levites were purified together, all of them were pure, and killed the passover for all the sons of the captivity and for their brethren, the priests, and for themselves.

21 And the sons of Israel who had returned out of captivity and all those who had separated themselves unto them from the uncleanness of the Gentiles of the land, to seek the LORD God of Israel, ate

22 and kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy; for the LORD had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.