² “Go to the house of the ^(A)Rechabites, speak to them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of ^(B)the chambers, and give them wine to drink.”

⁵⁵ And the families of the scribes who dwelt at Jabez were the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and the Suchathites. These were the ^(A)Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the house of ^(B)Rechab.

²⁶ For in this trusted office were four chief gatekeepers; they were Levites. And they had charge over the chambers and treasuries of the house of God.

⁵ Against the wall of the ^[a]temple he built ^(A)chambers all around, against the walls of the temple, all around the sanctuary ^(B)and the ^[b]inner sanctuary. Thus he made side chambers all around it. ⁶ The lowest chamber was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for he made narrow ledges around the outside of the temple, so that the support beams would not be fastened into the walls of the ^[c]temple.

⁴ In front of the chambers, toward the inside, was a walk ten cubits wide, at a distance of one cubit; and their doors faced north. ⁵ Now the upper chambers were shorter, because the galleries took away space from them more than from the lower and middle stories of the building. ⁶ For they were in three stories and did not have pillars like the pillars of the courts; therefore the upper level was ^[a]shortened more than the lower and middle levels from the ground up. ⁷ And a wall which was outside ran parallel to the chambers, at the front of the chambers, toward the outer court; its length was fifty cubits. ⁸ The length of the chambers toward the outer court was fifty cubits, whereas that facing the temple was one ^(A)hundred cubits. ⁹ At the lower chambers was the entrance on the east side, as one goes into them from the outer court.

¹⁰ Also there were chambers in the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, opposite the separating courtyard and opposite the building. ^11 (B)There was a walk in front of them also, and their appearance was like the chambers which were toward the north; they were as long and as wide as the others, and all their exits and entrances were according to plan. ¹² And corresponding to the doors of the chambers that were facing south, as one enters them, there was a door in front of the walk, the way directly in front of the wall toward the east.

¹³ Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers, which are opposite the separating courtyard, are the holy chambers where the priests who approach the Lord ^(C)shall eat the most holy offerings. There they shall lay the most holy offerings—^(D)the grain offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering—for the place is holy.

The Side Chambers on the Wall

⁵ Next, he measured the wall of the ^[a]temple, six cubits. The width of each side chamber all around the temple was four cubits on every side. ^6 (A)The side chambers were in three stories, one above the other, thirty chambers in each story; they rested on ^[b]ledges which were for the side chambers all around, that they might be supported, but ^(B)not fastened to the wall of the temple. ⁷ As one went up from story to story, the side chambers ^(C)became wider all around, because their supporting ledges in the wall of the temple ascended like steps; therefore the width of the structure increased as one went up from the lowest story to the highest by way of the middle one. ⁸ I also saw an elevation all around the temple; it was the foundation of the side chambers, ^(D)a full rod, that is, six cubits high. ⁹ The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits, and so also the remaining terrace by the place of the side chambers of the ^[c]temple. ¹⁰ And between it and the wall chambers was a width of twenty cubits all around the temple on every side. ¹¹ The doors of the side chambers opened on the terrace, one door toward the north and another toward the south; and the width of the terrace was five cubits all around.

¹⁶ There were ^(A)beveled window frames in the gate chambers and in their intervening archways on the inside of the gateway all around, and likewise in the vestibules. There were windows all around on the inside. And on each gatepost were ^(B)palm trees.

⁷ Each gate chamber was one rod long and one rod wide; between the gate chambers was a space of five cubits; and the threshold of the gateway by the vestibule of the inside gate was one rod. ⁸ He also measured the vestibule of the inside gate, one rod. ⁹ Then he measured the vestibule of the gateway, eight cubits; and the gateposts, two cubits. The vestibule of the gate was on the inside. ¹⁰ In the eastern gateway were three gate chambers on one side and three on the other; the three were all the same size; also the gateposts were of the same size on this side and that side.

¹¹ He measured the width of the entrance to the gateway, ten cubits; and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits. ¹² There was a ^[a]space in front of the gate chambers, one cubit on this side and one cubit on that side; the gate chambers were six cubits on this side and six cubits on that side. ¹³ Then he measured the gateway from the roof of one gate chamber to the roof of the other; the width was twenty-five cubits, as door faces door.

⁸ Thus we have ^(A)obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters,