Chronicles II 30:3

3 For they could not keep it at that time, because a sufficient number of priest had not purified themselves, and the people was not gathered to Jerusalem.

Chronicles II 30:3 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 30:3

For they could not keep it at the time
In the month Nisan, as the Targum adds, on the fourteenth day of the month, as the law enjoined, because the cleansing of the temple was not finished until the sixteenth day, see ( 2 Chronicles 29:17 ) and, besides this, two other reasons follow:

because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently;
that is, a sufficient number of them were not sanctified, to slay all the passover lambs the people that came to the feast would want:

neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem;
they had no notice of it, nor summons for it; and it was required that, at such a time, all the males in the land should appear at Jerusalem; but this custom having been long disused, it required time to acquaint them of the revival of it.

Chronicles II 30:3 In-Context

1 And Ezekias sent to all Israel and Juda, and wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasse, that they should come into the house of the Lord to Jerusalem, to keep the passover to the Lord God of Israel.

2 For the king, and the princes, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, designed to keep the passover in the second month.

3 For they could not keep it at that time, because a sufficient number of priest had not purified themselves, and the people was not gathered to Jerusalem.

4 And the proposal pleased the king and the congregation.

5 And they established a decree that a proclamation should go through all Israel, from Bersabee to Dan, that they should come and keep the passover to the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem: for the multitude had not done it lately according to the scripture.