Also (and) for the courses of the priests and the Levites. — This connects immediately with the phrase “all the chambers round about,” in 1 Chronicles 28:12. The chambers or cells round the Temple court were intended not only for the stowage of the treasures, but also for the use of the priests and Levites who would sojourn in them by, course. The LXX. and the Vulg, render (David gave him) a description of the courses of the priests and Levites, a sense which the Hebrew admits, and which the Authorised version has adopted; but the former connexion of the words is preferable.
For all the work of the service. — Such as cooking the flesh which fell to the priests from the sacrifices, and baking the shewbread. “The vessels of service,” that is, the utensils used by the Levites in the work just specified, would naturally be kept in the cells.
The Syriac version paraphrases 1 Chronicles 28:11-13 as follows: — “And David gave to Solomon his son the likeness of the porch, and the measure of the house and of the colonnade (kĕsôstĕrôn = ξυστός), and of the upper chambers; and of the inner cloisters (’estĕwê=στοαι), and of the outer cloisters, and of the upper and of the lower (storeys); and of the treasury (bêth gazzâ), and of the house of service of the Lord’s house, and of the kitchens, and of the house of the water-carriers (or cupbearers), and of the house of lampmen.” The last words are interesting, as explaining the nature of “the work of the service” (1 Chronicles 28:13).