Chronicles II 30:17

17 For a great part of the congregation was not sanctified; and the Levites were to kill the passover for every one who could not sanctify himself to the Lord.

Chronicles II 30:17 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 30:17

For there were many in the congregation that were not
sanctified
Or purified from uncleanness, contracted either by idolatry, or through such things which, according to the ceremonial law, made them unclean, and from which they had not now time to cleanse themselves according to the law:

therefore the Levites had the charge of the killing of the passovers
for everyone that was not clean, to sanctify them unto the Lord;
this they did for the masters of families, who were ceremonially unclean, who otherwise might have killed their passover lambs themselves, see ( Exodus 12:6 ) , but now the Levites did it for them, that their passovers might be sanctified and consecrated to the Lord; for, as Philo the Jew says ^F18, one day in a year the whole sacrificed, everyone acted as a priest, and brought and slew his own sacrifice, meaning at the passover.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 De Vita Mosis, l. 3. p. 686. & de Decalogo, p. 766.

Chronicles II 30:17 In-Context

15 Then they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the second month: and the priests and the Levites repented, and purified , and brought whole-burnt-offerings into the house of the Lord.

16 And they stood at their post, according to their ordinance, according to the commandment of Moses the man of God: and the priests received the blood from the hand of the Levites.

17 For a great part of the congregation was not sanctified; and the Levites were to kill the passover for every one who could not sanctify himself to the Lord.

18 For the greatest part of the people of Ephraim, and Manasse, and Issachar, and Zabulon, had not purified , but ate the passover contrary to the scripture. On this account also Ezekias prayed concerning them, saying,

19 The good Lord be merciful with regard to every heart that sincerely seeks the Lord God of their fathers, and not according to the purification of the sanctuary.