We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD's house.
We are confounded because we have heard reproach. The prophet anticipates the Jews' reply: I know you will say in despair, "We are confounded," etc. "Wherefore (God saith to you), behold, the days come that I will do judgment upon her (Babylon's) graven images" (Jeremiah 51:52). (Calvin.) I prefer taking Jeremiah 51:51 as the prayer which the Jews are directed to offer in exile (Jeremiah 51:50), "let Jerusalem come into your mind," (and say in prayer to God), "We are confounded." This view is confirmed by Psalms 44:15-16: "My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me, for the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth, by reason of the enemy and avenger," the whole 44th Psalm being the cry of distress of the captive and dispersed Jews; 79:4, "We are become a reproach to our neighbours," etc; Psalms 102:17-20; Isaiah 62:6-7.
For strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the Lord's house. The "reproach" which especially has stung us is when they taunted us with the feet that they had burned the temple, our special glory, as though our religion was a thing of nought.