¹⁵Then they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the second month: and the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought burnt offerings into the house of the Lord. ¹⁶And they stood in their place after their order, according to the law of Moses the man of God: the priests sprinkled the blood, which they received of the hand of the Levites.
15. the second month] Compare verses 2, 3.
were ashamed] Of their former backwardness; compare verse 3, xxix. 34.
¹⁷For there were many in the congregation that had not sanctified themselves: therefore the Levites had the charge of killing the passovers for every one that was not clean, to sanctify them unto the Lord.
17. of killing the passovers] “Passovers” (plural rare) = “Paschal victims”; compare verse 15, xxxv. 8 (“passover offerings”).
¹⁸For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it is written. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, The good Lord pardon every one[¹]
[¹] Or, him that setteth his whole heart.
18. of Ephraim, etc.] The list of tribes given here does not agree with the list in verse 11, but in both cases it may be that the Chronicler merely wished by his list to designate men of the Northern Kingdom as opposed to those of the Southern. He could not make the distinction by using the term “Israel” here, for in Chronicles “Israel” as a rule is not used in opposition to “Judah”; compare xi. 3 (note). (For a somewhat different view, see the head-note on verses 1–12 and xv. 9.)
otherwise than it is written] i.e. they were allowed to partake of the Passover meal, although not purified according to the regulations of the Law.
¹⁹that setteth his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.