And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and [there is] much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.
Ver. 10. And Judah said] Here was επεμβολη, impedimenti domestici; aliud ex alio malum, a worse discouragement than the former. Judah (the chief labourers) begins to murmur and mutiny, to faint and fall off. A perilous practice in such a dangerous time, and enough to have undone all; as one coward in an army, breaking the array and running away, may set the rest a running, and the day be thereby lost. Lo, this was Judah, whose escutcheon was a lion; but here unlike himself.
The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed] Very specious reasons they allege; their shoulders ached, their strength was gone, there was no end of their painstaking, their work grew upon them, &c. The truth was, deerat ignis, deerat animus, they were weary of well doing, and not valiant for the truth, Jeremiah 9:3. More like they were to those fugitives of Ephraim, Judges 12:4, than the lions of the tribe of Judah. Nehemiah therefore might well have said to them, as Alexander once did to a faint hearted soldier of his, that was of his own name, Either give up the name of Alexander, or be valiant. So, either hold out, and bear up under your burdens, or be Judah no more.
So that we are not able] Never was anything too hard for Alexander; because he never held anything impossible to be effected.