Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Chronicles 28:11

"Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch [of the temple], and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper rooms thereof, and of the inner chambers thereof, and of the place of the mercy-seat;" — 1 Chronicles 28:11 (ASV)

Then (and) David gave.—The description proceeds from the outer to the inner.

The pattern.—Hebrew, tahnîth, the word used in Exodus 25:9 for the model, plan, or design of the Tabernacle.

The porch.—See 1 Kings 6:3. The Syriac has prûstidê (that is, παραστάδες), meaning colonnade or portico.

The houses thereof.—These are its—that is, the Temple’s—chambers. Throughout this verse, the word thereof refers to the house mentioned in 1 Chronicles 28:10. The two principal rooms of the Temple, the “holy place” and the “Holy of holies” (or, as we might say, the nave and the chancel), are called its “houses” (bâttîm).

The treasuries (ganzakkim)—occurring here only. This word appears to be a loanword from Persian (ghanj, meaning treasure or treasury; compare the Latin and Greek gaza, treasure. In Old Persian, ka was a noun-ending; compare bandaka, servant). With the singular form, ganzak, compare Persian Ghanjak (the classical Gazaca), the capital of Atropatene, which was a treasure-city. (Compare also the word ginzê (Esther 3:9; Esther 4:7; Ezra 7:20) and ginzayyâ (Ezra 5:17; Ezra 6:1), meaning treasures.)

Gesenius (Thesaurus, p. 296) assumes that the root G N Z has passed from Semitic into Persian, and not vice versa. This may be true, as the root exists in the principal Semitic tongues, and yet it may be that ganzak in Hebrew is a modern loanword. The “treasuries” or storerooms of the Temple were probably in the side-building of three stories (1 Kings 6:5).

The upper chambers (‘alîyôth).—This term is found only here and in 2 Chronicles 3:9. They were probably over the Holy of holies, the ceiling of which was twenty cubits from the floor, whereas the roof of the whole building was thirty cubits from the ground. A space ten cubits high, twenty wide, and twenty long was thus available for these upper chambers.

The inner parlours.—These refer to the forecourt (or vestibule) and the holy place (or nave), in contrast with “the place of the mercy-seat,” or the chamber of the Kappôreth: that is, the Holy of holies, the inmost shrine of the whole building.