John Gill Bible Commentary

Now the upper chambers were shorter,.... The chambers were in three stories, as in the following verse, one above another; the middlemost were shorter than the lowermost, and the upper shorter than either; just the reverse of the chambers in Eze 41:7, they were not so high from the floor to the ceiling, nor so broad from side to side. The reason follows: for the galleries were higher than these; or, "ate out of these" (w), "than the lower, and than the middlemost of the building"; the meaning is, that the galleries or balconies in the middlemost and upper chambers were taken, out of them, and so made them lesser than the lower ones, and the upper ones lesser than either; or the posts or pillars, as the word may be rendered, see Eze 42:3, which supported the chambers, took more out of the uppermost than the others, and so made them shorter. This may signify the diversity of gifts and grace, of light and knowledge, and of liberty and comfort, in the churches; and that, as those that are uppermost have most light, they are usually the least, and fewest members in them; who are the few names in Sardis, Rev 3:4, and are generally more straitened, afflicted, reproached, and persecuted. (w) Keri, "comedebant ex ipsis", Mariana; "demordebant ab illis", Cocceius, Starckius.