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.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 16. Levites, who received the paschal lambs from the unsanctified. Menochius.—The law does not require the ministry of the tribe of Levi for this purpose, as each one might kill the paschal victim at home. But the people were not sufficiently purified on this occasion. Lyran.—At other times, laics killed the victims, if they were clean. Exodus 12:6. After the tabernacle was set up, the priests poured out the blood on the altar; and, in latter ages, they slew the victim according to Grotius. But the texts of Josephus (x. 5 and Bel. vi. 45. Lat. vii. 17. Bible.) are inconclusive; and Philo repeatedly assert that, on one day, the law authorizes all the people to sacrifice: and, though he lived at Alexandria, his testimony respecting a fact of public notoriety, is not to be rejected. Only the unclean applied to the Levites on this occasion, and the latter had no more right to sacrifice than the rest. Calmet.