The phrase implies that the discouragement voiced later in this verse was widespread. Note that in Nehemiah 4:6 Nehemiah had recorded that the people had a mind to work
(despite the jeering). What is being said now does not so much deny the mind to work
as record the people’s exhaustion and discouragement in the face of the enemies’ sinister plotting and their sowing of discord and suspicion among the Jewish population.
10 In Judah it was said, “The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall.”