Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Chronicles 30:3

Charles Ellicott Commentary

2 Chronicles 30:3

1819–1905
Anglican
Charles Ellicott
Charles Ellicott

Charles Ellicott Commentary

2 Chronicles 30:3

1819–1905
Anglican
SCRIPTURE

"For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem." — 2 Chronicles 30:3 (ASV)

At that time. —The time when the Temple had just been reopened (2 Chronicles 29:8), in the first month of Hezekiah’s first year. The Purification of the Temple was not completed until the 16th of Nisan (2 Chronicles 29:17); but perhaps the Passover would have been held, had not the hindrances here mentioned prevented it. (See 2 Chronicles 29:34).

Sufficiently.Lĕmaddày. Literally, unto what was enough (lĕ-mah-dày), an expression only found here. (Compare a similar formation, 1 Chronicles 15:13.) The meaning is that a sufficient number of priests had not observed the legal ceremonies of self-purification in time to hold Passover in Nisan.