1 Kings 6:5

And against [or upon, עַל ; they rested on the wall] the wall of the house [here meaning both temple and oracle: see below] he built chambers [Marg. floors . The Orig. is יָצוּעַ (Keri, יָצִיעַ ) singular = stratum ( יָצַע stravit, spread out). Symm. translates κατάστρωμα . Gesenius remarks that the word is used here and in 1 Kings 6:10 in the masculine of the whole of the side structure, while in 1 Kings 6:6 it is used in the feminine of the single stories. The floors bore this name, יָצוּע , because they were spread upon , not inserted into the walls. Rawlinson has evidently confounded this word with צֵלָע (see below) when he says, "The Hebrew word here used would be best translated a lean to ." Both words are translated alike "chambers" in the Authorized Version, but the first means stories or floors ; the second may, perhaps, signify lean tos ] round about, against [It is doubtful whether אֶת is here, as commonly, merely the sign of the accusative, or is the preposition " with ," meaning "in connexion with," cum parietibus (Seb. Schmidt), in which case its meaning would approach very closely to that of עַל above. Bähr remarks that עַל and אֶת are used elsewhere as almost synonymous, and refers to Psalms 4:7 in connexion with Psalms 67:2 . Keil translates, "As for the walls" ( Anlangend die Wande ) , but this gives us an unfinished sentence. It is probably an accusative, explicative of the preceding clause = "I mean the walls," etc; the singular, wall, having being used above. This additional clause] the walls of the house round about [would then mean that the term "house" is to be understood as including both temple and oracle (and excluding porch), as the next words define it], both of the temple and of the oracle [The floors, i.e; ran round the south, west, and north sides of the building. Stanley aptly compares them to the little shops which nestle under the continental cathedrals; though the side aisles of some Gothic churches, viewed externally, would perhaps better represent their proportions] and he made chambers [ צְלָעעוֹת , literally, ribs, beams, (Gesenius); Rippen (Bähr). The design of the word is clearly to convey that the floors were "divided by partitions into distinct compartments" (Merz). According to Ezekiel 41:6 (where, however, the reading is doubtful) there were thirty-three of these side chambers; according to Josephus (Ant. 8.8. 2) thirty. Thenius is probably not so far wrong when he sees in these chambers bedrooms. A sort of monastery would seem to have been attached to the temple. So many chambers could hardly have been required for the "preservation of temple stores and utensils" (Keil), or of offerings (Ewald). Whatever their use, we can hardly suppose that they were wholly without light, though nothing is said about windows. They may have had "fixed lattices." It is to be re. membered that the priests and Levites ministered "by night in the house of the Lord" ( Psalms 134:1 )] round about.