1 Kings 8:8

And they drew out the staves The verb either means transitively -to make long" or intransitively -to be long," and the better rendering is -the staves were long." We are nowhere told how long the staves were made, but no doubt they were of considerable length that there might be no danger of the bearers touching the sacred coffer. Philippson (die Israelitische Bibel) says the old staves were ten cubits long, but that for this occasion, according to some Jewish commentators, new staves and longer ones had been made that more priests might take a share in the carrying. To join on easily to the following clause we must render the staves were so long.

that the ends of the staves were seen out in the holyplace] Instead of -out in" the Hebrew has from, and the sense is that, somehow or other, the heads of the staves were to be seen by persons looking from the holy place towards the oracle. It is noteworthy that in 2 Chronicles 5:9 it is said -the staves were seen fromthe ark."

and[R.V. better, but] they were not seen without That is to say, when any one went towards the porch and stood at the entrance of the holy place, the heads of the staves were no longer visible. The whole description must refer to occasions when the entrance into the holy of holies was open, but why it is inserted it is hard to say, for it appears to explain nothing, and to be of itself somewhat inexplicable. The ark was not seen at all, but one standing near the division between the holy place and the most holy might at such a time see the ends of the staves, though if he were as far away as the length of the holy place, he could not see them. The phrase in 2 Chronicles 5:9 would then signify that they were seen as they projected fromthe ark.

and there they are unto this day To have allowed these words to remain bespeaks a singularly close copyist. They appear also in the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles (1 Kings 5:9). They were no doubt written first when the Temple was still standing, but could not have been true either for the compiler of the Kings or of Chronicles. They are omitted by the LXX.