That prepareth. — Hath directed. The division of verses here is obviously incorrect. (The mistake was doubtless caused by the omission of the relative in the Hebrew between kol, “every one,” and lĕbâbô hçkîn, “his heart he hath directed.” The construction is parallel to that in 1 Chronicles 15:12, “unto the place that I have prepared for it;” so LXX.) The prayer is, “Jehovah the Good atone for every one who hath directed his heart to seek the true God, even Jehovah, the God of his fathers, albeit not (literally, and not) according to the holy purifying” — i.e., although he hath not rigorously observed the law of purification.
Purification of the sanctuary. — Or, holy purification: a phrase only found here (comp. 1 Chronicles 23:28).
The prayer evinces a preference of spiritual sincerity to mere literal observance of legal prescriptions, which is all the more remarkable as occurring in a writer whose principal aim is to foster a due reverence for the external ordinances and traditional customs of religion.