Jeremiah 22:13,14 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Woe unto him that buildeth, &c.— The prophet proceeds to denounce God's judgments against Jehoiakim, who had built himself a stately palace in those calamitous times, and took no care to pay the wages of his workmen, but supported his own luxury by oppressing those who were to live by their labour. See Leviticus 19:13. We may observe, respecting these upper chambers, that there was generally but one hole or window which looked towards the temple. The meaning of this place, which was as spoken of a king, is, "If a man shall raise up to himself a vast and stately pile of building, and proportionably erect an upper room to my honour and service, and cut me out a window towards the place of my sanctuary, and ceil it with vermillion, yet if this be done by oppression and unrighteousness, woe be to that man and his magnificence!" See Gregory's Works, p. 13. Mark 14:15 and Judges 3:20. The author of the Observations remarks, that the chief and most ornamented apartments of the palace which Jehoiakim set himself to build, are represented as upper rooms. "I believe (says he) none of our authors would express themselves after this manner; the lower rooms would be the chief objects of their attention. It was perfectly natural, however, in Jeremiah, there is reason to think; for the chief rooms of the houses of Aleppo, at this day, are those above; the ground-floor there being principally made use of for their horses and chariots." See Observations, p. 95 and Amos 9:6.