II Chronicles 30:17
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Since there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves, the Levites were in charge of slaughtering the Passover lambs for every unclean person to consecrate the lambs to the LORD.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Destruction of the idols and the altars of the high places. Provisions for the ordering and maintenance of the temple worship, and the attendants upon it. - Ch2 31:1. At the conclusion of the festival, all the Israelites who had been present at the feast (הנּמצאים כּל־שׂראל to be understood as in Ch2 30:21) went into the cities of Judah, and destroyed all the idols, high places, and altars not only in Judah and Benjamin (the southern kingdom), but also in Ephraim and Manasseh (the domain of the ten tribes), utterly (עד־לככּה, cf. Ch2 24:10), and only then returned each to his home; cf. Kg2 18:4.
Open source ↗In this chapter we have an account of the solemn passover which Hezekiah kept in the first year of his reign. I. The consultation about it, and the resolution he and his people came to for the observance of it (Ch2 30:2-5). II. The invitation he sent to Judah and Israel to come and keep it (Ch2 30:1, Ch2 30:6-12). III. The joyful celebration of it (Ch2 30:13-27). By this the reformation, set on foot in the foregoing chapter, was greatly advanced and established, and that nail in God's holy place clenched.
Open source ↗30:17-19 A large number of pilgrims who traveled great distances from foreign lands did not have an opportunity to receive the proper purification ceremonies and were unfit to participate in the ceremony. Hezekiah allowed the pilgrims to eat the Passover without participating in the sacrificial ritual and in an impure state, and he prayed that God would accept their worship. Hezekiah was following the formula for restoration (see 7:14).
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
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However, since there were not enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings, their Levite brothers helped them until the work was finished and until the priests had been consecrated. For the Levites had been more diligent in consecrating themselves than the priests had been.
You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.