2 Chronicles 30:3

3 for they have not been able to make it at that time, for the priests have not sanctified themselves sufficiently, and the people have not been gathered to Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 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.

2 Chronicles 30:3 In-Context

1 And Hezekiah sendeth unto all Israel and Judah, and also letters he hath written unto Ephraim and Manasseh, to come in to the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem, to make a passover to Jehovah, God of Israel.

2 And the king taketh counsel, and his heads, and all the assembly in Jerusalem, to make the passover in the second month,

3 for they have not been able to make it at that time, for the priests have not sanctified themselves sufficiently, and the people have not been gathered to Jerusalem.

4 And the thing is right in the eyes of the king, and in the eyes of all the assembly,

5 and they establish the thing, to cause to pass over an intimation into all Israel, from Beer-Sheba even unto Dan, to come in to make a passover to Jehovah, God of Israel, in Jerusalem, for not for a long time had they done as it is written.