Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Kings 6:5-10

"And against the wall of the house he built stories round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle; and he made side-chambers round about. The nethermost story was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad; for on the outside he made offsets [in the wall] of the house round about, that [the beams] should not have hold in the walls of the house. And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building. The door for the middle side-chambers was in the right side of the house: and they went up by winding stairs into the middle [story], and out of the middle into the third. So he built the house, and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar. And he built the stories against all the house, each five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar." — 1 Kings 6:5-10 (ASV)

The general meaning of these verses is clear, though some of the words are doubtful. Around three sides of the Temple was built a kind of aisle, opening, however, outwards and not into the Temple, having three stories of low chambers (each only five cubits high), so arranged that the beams of their roofs were supported on rests on the outside of the wall (each rest being a cubit wide), leaving the wall itself intact. Thus, the chambers of the lowest story were narrowest—five cubits wide; the second story six cubits, and the highest story seven cubits wide.

The higher stories (see 1 Kings 6:8), in which the chambers no doubt opened into one another, were approached by a staircase having an external entrance on the right side of the building; the chambers of the lowest story probably had their own external doors. Above the highest story, there were still five cubits of wall, which would provide room for the previously mentioned windows (like clerestory windows). Nothing is said about the use of these chambers; but they would be, no doubt, for the priests' residences, Temple stores, and furniture.

The word translated “chambers” in the first part of 1 Kings 6:5 is a singular noun, referring to the whole of this aisle or side building; the “chambers” in the latter part of the verse—properly, “side pieces” or “ribs”—denote the separate apartments, or perhaps each of the stories of the building.