Therefore he brought down their heart with labour,.... Humbled them under his mighty hand; brought down their haughty spirits and proud stomachs by one afflictive providence or another; by which the Lord humbles men, as he did the Israelites in the wilderness, and hides pride from them: or with trouble of mind, under a conviction of sin; when pride, which is the cause of rebellion against God, and of contempt of his counsel, is brought down, and the haughtiness of man laid low; and when men, humbled under a sense of sin, are made willing to submit to Christ and his righteousness, to God's way of saving sinners by him, to the law of God, and to the Gospel of Christ.
They fell down; they threw themselves prostrate at his feet for mercy; their heart and strength failed them, as the word signifies, and is used in Ps 31:10, terrified with a sense of divine wrath, they could not stand before the Lord, nor brave it out against him.
And there was none to help; they could not help themselves, nor was there any creature that could.