Luke 14:28 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

To build a tower,— We learn from eastern writers, that besides fortified towns and cities, they used to have towers for the people of open towns to fly to in time of danger, as well as magnificent towers for pleasure in their gardens. Our Lord probably refers to a tower of this latter kind; for one can hardly think, with some commentators, that he is speaking of the slight and unexpensive buildings in a vineyard, which indeed are sometimes so slight, as to consist only of four poles, with a floor on the top of them, to which they ascend by a ladder; but rather of those elegant turrets erected in gardens, where the eastern people of fortune spend a considerable part of their time.