We are confounded, because we have heard
reproach
These are the words of the Jews, either objecting to their return
to their land; or lamenting the desolation of it; and complaining
of the reproach it lay under, being destitute of inhabitants; the
land in general lying waste and uncultivated; the city of
Jerusalem and temple in ruins; and the worship of God ceased; and
the enemy insulting and reproaching; suggesting, that their God
could not protect and save them; and, under these
discouragements, they could not bear the thoughts of returning to
it: shame hath covered our faces;
they knew not which way to look when they heard the report of the
state of their country, and the reproach of the enemy, and
through shame covered their faces: for strangers are come
into the sanctuaries of the Lord's house;
the oracle, or the holy of holies; the temple, or the holy place,
and the porch or court; so Kimchi and Abarbinel; into which the
Chaldeans, strangers to God and the commonwealth of Israel, had
entered, to the profanation of them, and had destroyed them.