assembly of the people at Jerusalem to celebrate the feast became a great congregation.
Verse 14
Before the slaying of the passover, in order to purify and sanctify the city for the feast, they removed the (illegal) altars and places for offering incense which had been erected under Ahaz (2Ch 28:24), and threw them into the Kidron (2Ch 29:16). מקטּרות is here a substantive: places for incense-offerings (cf. Ew. §160, e), and denotes altars intended for the offering of the קטרת.
Verse 15
When they slaughtered the passover on the 14th, the Levites and priests also were ashamed, i.e., had sanctified themselves under the influence of a feeling of shame, and offered the sacrifice in the house of the Lord; i.e., they performed the sacrificial functions incumbent upon them at the passover in the temple, as is stated more in detail in 2Ch 30:16. The clause וגו והכּהנים is a circumstantial clause, and the statement points back to 2Ch 30:3. The mention of Levites along with the priests here is worthy of remark, since in 2Ch 29:34 it is said that at the celebration of the dedication of the temple the Levites had sanctified themselves more zealously than the priests. But these two statements do not contradict each other. In 2Ch 29:34 it is the Levites and priests then present in or dwelling in Jerusalem who are spoken of; here, on the contrary, it is the priests and the Levites of the whole kingdom of Judah. Even though, at the former period, the Levites were more zealous in sanctifying themselves for the dedication of the temple, yet there must certainly have been many Levites in Judah, who, like many of the priests, did not immediately purify themselves from their defilement by the worship in the high places, and were only impelled and driven to sanctify themselves for the service of the Lord by the Zeal of the people who had come to Jerusalem to hold the passover.
Verses 16-17
Standing in their place, according to their right, i.e., according to the prescribed arrangement (see on 1Ch 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 2Ch 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 2Ch 35:6, 2Ch 35:11). רבּת, stat. constr. before the
