Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 42:5

"Now the upper chambers were shorter; for the galleries took away from these, more than from the lower and the middlemost, in the building." — Ezekiel 42:5 (ASV)

For the galleries were higher than these. —Translate this verse, And the upper chambers were shortened, because the galleries took from them (literally, eat of them) in comparison with the lower and the middle [ chambers ] of the building. The building was in three storeys (Ezekiel 42:6), like the chambers round the Temple, but the gallery is mentioned only in connection with the third (Ezekiel 42:3). As it must have been taken out of the width of the chambers, it made those of the third storey narrower.