If those who retrieve the stones find the task too much, and those who carry the stones back up hill can scarcely manage, those who need to cement the stones back into place on the wall obviously can expect no assistance from these exhausted fellow labourers. The net effect is that the rebuilding project simply becomes too much. And saying it repeatedly to one another cements the growing pessimism.
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.”