The lowest story was five cubits broad, the middle one was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad. For around the outside of the house he made offsets on the wall in order that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house.
Verse 6 pauses on a building detail. Three tiers of side rooms wrapped the temple, and each level was a cubit wider than the one below. They rested on ledges in the outer wall, so no beam was ever driven into the house itself. Why did Solomon build outward instead of into the wall, and why does Scripture record it?
How the ledges worked
As the wall rose, it stepped back. Each step became a shelf.
Numerical Bible NotesThe account in 1 Kings 6 may help us to better understand the structure of the side chambers. These were in three stories too, and each one was a cubit wider than the one below: 5, 6, and 7 cubits. This means that the wall of the house stepped back at each story. Each step formed a resting place for the floor beams. The beams were not set into the wall. They rested on the one-cubit ledge that the stepped-back wall made.
Rooms to live in
These rooms were homes. They mark a change from the tent Israel carried through the wilderness.
H. L. RossierThe side chambers ran all around the temple, except of course at its entrance. They were the homes of the priests. There was nothing like this in the tabernacle in the wilderness. There God was surely willing to stoop down and live among an earthly people, but only on one condition: He would hide Himself in thick darkness. He could not let man come and live with Him. Man dwelling with God is what is realized here under Solomon's glorious reign, and it will be realized for us when the Lord brings us into the Father's house. Already that house is open to our faith, and we may dwell there while we are still in this world.
2 Chronicles leaves these chambers out of its account. One writer sees a purpose in the gap:
Arend Remmers1 Kings 6:5-10 mentions the chambers all around the house, and 2 Chronicles leaves them out… This fact, with other small details, makes it plain that 1 Kings describes the dwelling place of God and His close fellowship with His people. Second Chronicles however depicts the place where one can come near to God to worship Him.
The wall left whole
The ledges matter for what they prevented. Solomon housed men against the sanctuary without cutting into it once.
H. L. RossierThe priests' homes could not be separated from the house. They formed one whole with it, and they spoiled no part of it. The temple walls had offsets that held the beams fast without damaging the walls. In this way the priests' rooms fitted the house exactly, without harming the building in any way. This is how we shall dwell in glory. Our being there will not weaken the perfection of God's house; it will only add to it.
Five, six, seven
Commentators differ over how much weight to put on the rising measurements. One writer offers it only as a question — "Is this meant to suggest continual progress in the Father's house above?" (W. W. Fereday). Another presses it further, joining the upward growth to the inward movement of the rooms:
The TempleThe side rooms are in three storeys. They grow larger as they rise, and they lead one into another from east to west, climbing higher and higher. This strongly suggests enlargement and progress in heavenly glory: higher heights, fuller likeness to God, and closer fellowship with Him. They move on from one room to the next until you reach the innermost room, the nearest to "the Holiest of all," the nearest to the displayed glory of God. Thus shall the saints have increasing capacity to enjoy and serve God in the countless ages of eternity to come.
Where the picture runs out
Solomon's chambers held only so many men. Jesus later spoke of many rooms in His Father's house, and the comparison shows where the temple picture runs short.
Leslie M. GrantIn the temple there could only be a limited number of rooms for the priests who were serving there at any one time. But the Lord Jesus says, "In My Father's house are many mansions" (Jn.14:2). So the temple is only a faint picture of the reality. In effect the Lord is saying that there is room for all His redeemed people there. The word for "mansions" is better translated "abodes," permanent dwelling places. All believers will have their place there, for all are priests of God. In glory they will serve in the full capacity of priests, mainly by offering up spiritual sacrifices to God.
(ESV renders John 14:2 "In my Father's house are many rooms.")
Summary
- Ledge. The wall stepped back one cubit at each story. Those steps carried the floor beams, so the rooms widened while the wall stayed whole.
- Dwelling. The tent in the wilderness had no side rooms. The temple does: here God not only lives among His people but lets them live with Him.
- Intact. Men lived against the sanctuary, yet not one beam cut into it. The house lost nothing by their being there.
- Ascending. Five, six, seven cubits. Some read the rising, widening rooms as growing capacity for God; one writer raises this only as a question.
- Overflow. Solomon could lodge only a few priests. The Father's house has abodes for all the redeemed, and the temple is only a faint sketch of it.