²⁸ The duty of the Levites was to help Aaron’s descendants in the service of the temple of the Lord: to be in charge of the courtyards, the side rooms, the purification^(A) of all sacred things and the performance of other duties at the house of God.

⁹ I gave orders to purify the rooms,^(A) and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.^(B)

¹³ Then he said to me, “The north^(A) and south rooms^(B) facing the temple courtyard^(C) are the priests’ rooms, where the priests who approach the Lord will eat the most holy offerings. There they will put the most holy offerings—the grain offerings,^(D) the sin offerings^[a](E) and the guilt offerings^(F)—for the place is holy.^(G)

³ Both in the section twenty cubits^[a] from the inner court and in the section opposite the pavement of the outer court, gallery^(A) faced gallery at the three levels.^(B)

²⁶ On the sidewalls of the portico were narrow windows with palm trees carved on each side. The side rooms of the temple also had overhangs.^(A)

⁶ The side rooms were on three levels, one above another, thirty^(A) on each level. There were ledges all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side rooms, so that the supports were not inserted into the wall of the temple.^{(B) 7} The side rooms all around the temple were wider at each successive level. The structure surrounding the temple was built in ascending stages, so that the rooms widened as one went upward. A stairway^(C) went up from the lowest floor to the top floor through the middle floor.

⁸ I saw that the temple had a raised base all around it, forming the foundation of the side rooms. It was the length of the rod, six long cubits. ⁹ The outer wall of the side rooms was five cubits thick. The open area between the side rooms of the temple ¹⁰ and the priests’ rooms was twenty cubits wide all around the temple. ¹¹ There were entrances to the side rooms from the open area, one on the north and another on the south; and the base adjoining the open area was five cubits wide all around.

⁴ I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the room of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah the man of God.^(A) It was next to the room of the officials, which was over that of Maaseiah son of Shallum^(B) the doorkeeper.^(C)

⁴ Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms^(A) of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah,^{(B) 5} and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes^(C) of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.

²⁴ Pethahiah son of Meshezabel, one of the descendants of Zerah^(A) son of Judah, was the king’s agent in all affairs relating to the people.