So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their courses, according to the king's commandment.

And the ministry was prepared, and the priests stood in their office: the Levites also in their companies, according to the king's commandment.

And the service is prepared, and the priests stand on their station, and the Levites on their courses, according to the command of the king,

So everything was made ready and the priests took their places with the Levites in their divisions, as the king had said.

And the ministry was prepared. And the priests stood in their office, and the Levites also stood in their companies, according to the order of the king.

So the service was prepared,.... Every thing was got ready both for the passover and the feast of unleavened bread, for all sorts of people, rich and poor:
and the priests stood in their place; in their court near the altar, to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifices about it, as in the following verse:
and the Levites in their courses; whose turn it was to officiate:
according to the king's commandment, 2-Chronicles 35:4.

So the service was prepared, &c.--All the necessary preparations having been completed, and the appointed time having arrived for the passover, the solemnity was celebrated. One remarkable feature in the account is the prominent part that was taken by the Levites in the preparation of the sacrifices; namely, the killing and stripping of the skins, which were properly the peculiar duties of the priests; but as those functionaries were not able to overtake the extraordinary amount of work and the Levites had been duly sanctified for the service, they were enlisted for the time in this priestly employment. At the passover in Hezekiah's time, the Levites officiated in the same departments of duty, the reason assigned for that deviation from the established rule being the unprepared state of many of the people (2-Chronicles 30:17). But on this occasion the whole people had been duly sanctified, and therefore the exceptional enlistment of the Levites' services must have been rendered unavoidably necessary from the multitudes engaged in celebrating the passover.