And the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves. — Ashamed of their former reluctance to purify themselves from the defilement contracted by their connection with illegal cults and sanctuaries during the late reign (2 Chronicles 29:34; and 2 Chronicles 30:3, supra). In the former passage the Levites are favourably contrasted with the priests; here they are spoken of in the same terms, a verbal inaccuracy apparently due to the writer’s desire to be brief.

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