Ezra 6:20

20 For the cohanim and L'vi'im had purified themselves together; all of them were pure. So they slaughtered the Pesach lambs for all the people from the exile and for their kinsmen the cohanim 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 Then they installed the cohanim in their divisions and the L'vi'im in their orders for the service of God in Yerushalayim, as written in the book of Moshe.

19 The people from the exile kept Pesach on the fourteenth day of the first month.

20 For the cohanim and L'vi'im had purified themselves together; all of them were pure. So they slaughtered the Pesach lambs for all the people from the exile and for their kinsmen the cohanim and for themselves.

21 The people of Isra'el who had returned from the exile and all those who had renounced the filthy practices of the nations living in the land in order to seek ADONAI the God of Isra'el, ate [the Pesach lamb]

22 and joyfully kept the feast of matzah for seven days; for ADONAI had filled them with joy by turning the heart of the king of Ashur toward them, so that he assisted them in the work of the house of God, the God of Isra'el.