2 Chronicles 30:17

For there were many in the congregation that were not sanctified: therefore the Levites had the charge of the killing of the passovers for every one that was not clean, to sanctify them unto the LORD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(17) There were many in the congregation that were not sanctified.—Comp. 2Chronicles 35:6; 2Chronicles 35:10-11, where the Levites are again represented as doing the same work, but not as an exception. The precedent of Hezekiah’s Passover would seem to have become the rule. (Comp. also Ezra 6:20.)

To sanctify them—i.e., the lambs, which would have been ceremonially unclean if slain by unclean hands. (Comp. 2Chronicles 2:4, “to dedicate it unto Him;” the same verb.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

30:13-20 The great thing needful in attendance upon God in solemn ordinances, is, that we make heart-work of it; all is nothing without this. Where this sincerity and fixedness of heart are, there may yet be many things short of the purification of the sanctuary. These defects need pardoning, healing grace; for omissions in duty are sins, as well as omissions of duty. If God should deal with us in strict justice, even as to the very best of our doings, we should be undone. The way to obtain pardon, is to seek it of God by prayer; it must be gotten by petition through the blood of Christ. Yet every defect is sin, and needs forgiveness; and should be matter to humble, but not to discourage us, though nothing can make up for the want of a heart prepared to seek the Lord.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

After their manner - According to the Mishna, the custom was for the priests to stand in two rows extending from the altar to the outer court, where the people were assembled. As each offerer killed his lamb the blood was caught in a basin, which was handed to the nearest priest, who passed it on to his neighbor, and he to the next; the blood was thus conveyed to the altar, at the base of which it was thrown by the last priest in the row. While basins full of blood were thus passed up, empty basins were passed down in a constant succession, so that there was no pause or delay.

Which they received of the hand of the Levites - Ordinarily, the blood was received at the hand of the offerer. But the greater number of the Israelites 2 Chronicles 30:17 who had come to keep the feast were involved in some ceremonial or moral defilement, from which there had not been time for them to purify themselves. On account of this uncleanness, they did not slay their own lambs, but delegated the office to the Levites.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16-18. the priests sprinkled the blood, which they received of the hand of the Levites—This was a deviation from the established rules and practices in presenting the offerings of the temple. The reason was, that many present on the occasion having not sanctified themselves, the Levites slaughtered the paschal victims (see on [465]2Ch 35:5) for everyone that was unclean. At other times the heads of families killed the lambs themselves, the priests receiving the blood from their hands and presenting it on the altar. Multitudes of the Israelites, especially from certain tribes (2Ch 30:18), were in this unsanctified state, and yet they ate the passover—an exceptional feature and one opposed to the law (Nu 9:6); but this exception was allowed in answer to Hezekiah's prayer (2Ch 30:18-20).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That were not sanctified; that had more desire to come to the passover, than care and diligence to cleanse and prepare themselves for it. Now these persons were either,

1. The priests, who were before taxed with uncleanness and unpreparedness. Or rather,

2. The people, as is implied in the word

congregation, and expressed in the next verse, and confirmed by the reason here following.

The Levites had the charge of the killing, because many of the people were unclean, and therefore many more sacrifices were to be offered for their purification than the priests could kill. Of the passovers, i.e. either,

1. The paschal lambs: which the Levites here offered, because of the impurity of many of the masters of families, who otherwise, as some think, should have killed the paschal lambs in their own houses, Exodus 12:3. Or,

2. The other sacrifices which accompanied the passover, which also are called by the same name, as is evident from Deu 16:2,3, where See Poole "Deu 16:2", See Poole "Deu 16:3"; which the Levites here killed for the reason now mentioned.

For every one that was not clean; so far as they could make any discovery of their uncleanness, either by their own confession, or otherwise. But there were many whose uncleannesses were not known, and therefore did not cleanse themselves, as is said, 2 Chronicles 30:18, as they ought to have done.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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 (r), one day in a year the whole sacrificed, everyone acted as a priest, and brought and slew his own sacrifice, meaning at the passover.

(r) De Vita Mosis, l. 3. p. 686. & de Decalogo, p. 766.

Geneva Study Bible

For there were many in the congregation that were not sanctified: therefore the Levites had the charge of the killing of the passovers for every one that was not clean, to sanctify them unto the LORD.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

17. were not sanctified] R.V. had not sanctified themselves.

of the killing of the passovers] R.V. of killing the passovers. “Passovers” (plur. rare) = “Paschal victims”; cp. 2 Chronicles 30:15, 2 Chronicles 35:8 (“passover offerings” A.V. & R.V.).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 17. - Therefore the Levites had the charge (see Leviticus 1, etc., which repeatedly affirms that the original directions of Moses were that the person who brought the victim to offer it was to slay it, and to bring the blood). 2 Chronicles 30:17

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Standing in their place, according to their right, i.e., according to the prescribed arrangement (see on 1 Chronicles 6:17), the priests sprinkled the blood (of the paschal lambs) from the hand of the Levites, they handing it to them. This was not the rule: in the case of the paschal lamb, the father of the family who slew the lamb had to hand the blood to the priest, that it might be sprinkled upon the altar; here the Levites did it for the reasons given in 2 Chronicles 30:17. Because many in the assembly had not sanctified themselves, the Levites presided over the slaying of the paschal lambs for every one who was unclean, to sanctify (the lambs) to the Lord (see also on 2 Chronicles 35:6, 2 Chronicles 35:11). רבּת, stat. constr. before the noun with a preposition, stands as neuter substantively: there was a multitude in the assembly who...רבּת, in 2 Chronicles 30:18 is to be taken in a similar manner, not as an adverb (Berth.). וגו מאפרים רבּת is in apposition to העם מרבּית, a multitude of people, viz.: Many of Ephraim ... had not purified themselves, but ate the passover in an illegal fashion, not according to the precept (cf. Numbers 9:6). This clause explains how it happened that the Levites presided at the slaying of the passover for those who had not sanctified themselves, i.e., they caught the blood and gave it to the priests. Had this been done by persons levitically unclean, the expiatory sacrificial blood would have been defiled. The eating of the paschal lamb or the participation in the passover meal was indeed allowed only to the clean; but yet it was not so holy an act, i.e., did not bring the people into such immediate contact with God, who was present at His altar, that those who were not clean might not, under some circumstances, be admitted to it. Here it was allowed, for Hezekiah had prayed for them that God might forgive the transgression of the law.