Introduction
Chapter 54 is a chapter of consolation for the Congregation of Israel, who is compared here to a woman. The prophet addresses her in terms of a woman abandoned by her husband, promising her return, ingathering, and an eternal covenant. In the section before us, we will proceed from verse 4 to verse 10, examining two central approaches of interpretation: Radak, who views most of the promises as directed toward the future, and the Malbim, who understands them as directed toward wiping away the past. Both approaches complement each other and present us with a complete picture of the final redemption.
"Fear not, for you will not be ashamed" - A Redemption Followed by No Exile
אַל־תִּירְאִי כִּי־לֹא תֵבוֹשִׁי וְאַל־תִּכָּלְמִי כִּי לֹא תַחְפִּירִי כִּי בֹשֶׁת עֲלוּמַיִךְ תִּשְׁכָּחִי וְחֶרְפַּת אַלְמְנוּתַיִךְ לֹא תִזְכְּרִי־עוֹד׃ - Fear not, for you will not be ashamed, and be not humiliated, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
Radak explains the verse as applying to the future. The Jewish people might fear: We already left the exile of Egypt and then were exiled again; we were redeemed and entered the Land, and the First Temple was destroyed; we were redeemed through Ezra and Nehemiah and once again went into exile - the very exile in which we find ourselves to this day. Perhaps the next redemption will also be temporary, followed by yet another exile? To this, the prophet says: "Fear not, for you will not be ashamed." Radak explains: When a person rises to greatness and falls, that is shame and disgrace. The promise is that you will attain greatness that will never be followed by shame. "The shame of your youth" refers to the troubles you experienced in the Land in those early days, called "alumaich" from the root meaning concealed or distant, from long ago. "The reproach of your widowhood" refers to the hardships of exile, where you were like a widow without her husband. All of these you will forget due to the abundance of good destined to arrive. In simple terms: this is a promise of a redemption that will never be followed by exile or suffering.
The Malbim: Shame from Within and Humiliation from Others
The Malbim interprets the verse as a promise concerning the past, opening with a linguistic distinction. Shame (boshet) is what a person feels within himself - "How could I have done such a thing?", "How could I have made such a mistake?". Humiliation (kelimah), on the other hand, is when others shame and disgrace him. Accordingly, the clauses of the verse correspond to one another: "Fear not, for you will not be ashamed" corresponds to "for you will forget the shame of your youth"; "and be not humiliated, for you will not be disgraced" corresponds to "and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more."
The woman addressed by the prophet is the Congregation of Israel. In the days of her youth, when she still had a husband and dwelt upon her land, when the Holy One, Blessed is He, was with us in the Land and in the Beit HaMikdash, we committed evil deeds and worshipped idols, feeling ashamed of ourselves. This is "the shame of your youth." Humiliation from others we did not experience back then, since the other nations were also idolaters, so there was no one to feel humiliated by. Regarding this, the Holy One, Blessed is He, promises: Your children will return and your Husband will return, and you need not fear feeling ashamed of those deeds, "for you will forget the shame of your youth." And how is that shame forgotten? By Hashem forgiving and pardoning those sins - and when the cause of the shame is removed, the shame itself disappears.
Afterward, we were exiled from our land, becoming like a widow whom the Holy One, Blessed is He, had, as it were, driven away. In exile, we no longer felt shame within ourselves, for we did not continue to worship idols, but we suffered humiliation from others: all the nations looked upon us as a people cast out of their land, like a woman divorced and expelled from her husband's home. Against this it is said, "and be not humiliated, for you will not be disgraced." "To be disgraced" (tachfiri), the Malbim explains, stems from the concept of a person who, out of extreme embarrassment, digs (chopher) and hides his face - like the familiar expression of wishing to bury oneself in the ground. The prophet promises: There will no longer be a situation where you wish to disappear out of sheer humiliation, "and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more." The reproach cast upon you for being a widow and for the Holy One, Blessed is He, having seemingly cast you out of your land will be remembered no more. In passing, the Malbim notes that cherpah (reproach) and tachfiri share a conceptual root: reproach causes a person to bury his face.
Why "Forget" Here and "Remember No More" There?
Notice the precise nuance: regarding the sins committed in the Land, it says "you will forget," while regarding the humiliations inflicted by the nations in exile, it says "you will remember no more." Which is stronger in wiping away the past - forgetting or not remembering? Forgetting. Forgetting represents total oblivion; the matter is erased entirely from memory. "You will remember no more" means that the thing may still exist in one's mind, but it is not mentioned or spoken aloud. Therefore, the shame of our youth, which took place while we dwelt in the Land thousands of years ago, can more easily be forgotten completely - "you will forget." By contrast, the reproach of widowhood, the humiliations of the exile that are much closer to us, cannot be described as subject to complete oblivion; rather, "you will remember no more."
"For Your Maker Is Your Husband"
כִּי בֹעֲלַיִךְ עֹשַׂיִךְ יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת שְׁמוֹ וְגֹאֲלֵךְ קְדוֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל אֱלֹהֵי כׇל־הָאָרֶץ יִקָּרֵא׃ - For your Maker is your Husband, Hashem of Hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, He shall be called the God of all the earth.
Radak explains: He who made you will be your Master. We recite in the Selichot prayers, "the arrogant have mastered us," "masters besides You have ruled over us" - the wicked nations became masters over us instead of Hashem being our Master. To this the verse responds: it will not remain so, but rather "For your Maker is your Husband" - He who created you will be your Master. And why does the verse emphasize, "Hashem of Hosts is His name"? Because redeeming the people of Israel requires immense strength, and the One to Whom all the hosts of heaven and earth belong is the One Who is capable. "He shall be called the God of all the earth" - for after the redemption, all the nations will unite to serve Him with one accord, and consequently He will not be called only the God of Israel, but the God of the whole earth, as the nations too will recognize that Hashem is God.
The Malbim continues along his interpretive line, showing that this verse corresponds directly to the two themes in the preceding verse. Corresponding to "the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more," it says, "For your Maker is your Husband, Hashem of Hosts is His name" - through the power of Hashem, under Whose dominion all the heavenly legions fall, He will restore you to your proper standing. The disgrace of our exile has ended, for the Holy One, blessed be He, Who created us will once again be our Husband; He will take us back and wed us anew, and the humiliation of widowhood will be gone - we will return to being the mistress of the home. And corresponding to "the shame of your youth you will forget" - the sins we committed during the First Temple period, which filled us with inner shame - it says, "and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel." As explained previously, "the Holy One of Israel" refers to the Holy One, blessed be He, in His unique bond with the people of Israel, in that we sanctify Him through our deeds. That is to say, we will then become a holy nation to God, and Hashem will be proclaimed Holy through us by virtue of our sanctified actions. And "He shall be called the God of all the earth" - all mankind will serve Him and acknowledge His divinity. If so, how could we possibly sin again? Thus, our past sins will be completely erased, for we will sin no more, and all the iniquities committed while the Temple stood will be forgotten.
A Forsaken Wife and a Spurned Wife of Youth
כִּי־כְאִשָּׁה עֲזוּבָה וַעֲצוּבַת רוּחַ קְרָאָךְ יְהֹוָה וְאֵשֶׁת נְעוּרִים כִּי תִמָּאֵס אָמַר אֱלֹהָיִךְ׃ - For like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit Hashem has called you, and like a wife of youth when she is rejected, said your God.
The Malbim continues along this same line. When Israel dwelt on their land and strayed from Hashem, they were like a wife of youth who lives with her husband yet betrays him under his very roof, causing her husband to despise her for defying him. So it was with us: dwelling in Jerusalem, in the Land of Israel, in the Beis HaMikdash - yet provoking the Holy One, blessed be He. In such a state, the husband has not yet abandoned her or sent her away, but she has become repulsive in his eyes. In contrast, during the exile, the husband lost patience and drove us out because of our deeds. Through this lens, the verse becomes clear: "Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit" - this describes the exile, where the husband has departed and the woman is brokenhearted that he abandoned her. "And like a wife of youth when she is rejected" - this was the earlier state, when we still dwelt on our land, where the husband remained with her but found her deeds abhorrent.
The distinction between the two becomes apparent when they seek to rectify their plight. The forsaken wife needs her husband to take notice of her distress, for he is no longer with her. When a husband resides with his wife and she suffers, he is mindful of her troubles; but once he has sent her away, he is, as it were, unmindful and unconcerned. To be sure, the whole earth is full of the glory of the Holy One, blessed be He, yet as it were, He turned His attention away from her; she therefore needs Him to take note of her plight and have mercy upon her. The despised wife, on the other hand, does not suffer from her husband's unawareness, for she is still under his roof; her problem is that her actions provoke his anger. What she needs, therefore, is for him to act with lovingkindness and forgive her misdeeds.
"For a Brief Moment I Forsook You" - Mercy for Abandonment, Forgiveness for Rejection
בְּרֶגַע קָטֹן עֲזַבְתִּיךְ וּבְרַחֲמִים גְּדֹלִים אֲקַבְּצֵךְ׃ - For a brief moment I have forsaken you, but with great compassion I will gather you.
The Malbim explains: the abandonment will be regarded as but a fleeting moment compared to the immense magnitude of the redemption, to the extent that it will barely be counted alongside the greatness of the salvation. "And with great compassion I will gather you" - this corresponds to the forsaken wife, who needs her husband to pity her and care about her condition, and therefore compassion is required here. Yet we also experienced the state of a "wife of youth when she is rejected," when we still dwelt in the Land and Hashem despised our actions. In that state, it was not enough for Him merely to take interest in our plight, for He was wrathful that we served idols in His very house; there, He had first to remove His wrath from us, which is accomplished through the forgiveness of sin.
בְּשֶׁצֶף קֶצֶף הִסְתַּרְתִּי פָנַי רֶגַע מִמֵּךְ וּבְחֶסֶד עוֹלָם רִחַמְתִּיךְ אָמַר גֹּאֲלֵךְ יְהֹוָה׃ - In a brief surge of wrath I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you, said your Redeemer, Hashem.
According to the Malbim, the word shetzef means "a little." The concealment of the Divine face that stemmed from anger and rejection - over being provoked inside His own house - will be deemed mere slight wrath in comparison to the boundless compassion He will bestow. "And with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you" - this compassion stems from an everlasting grace (chesed olam) that forgives all iniquity permanently, a lovingkindness that wipes away every sin from all time. Consequently, everything that occurred when Israel was in the status of a "wife of youth when she is rejected" will be considered merely a momentary wrath compared to the great compassion He will display then, erasing everything that had provoked His anger.
Rashi cites Menachem that shetzef is an expression of burning wrath, meaning an abundance of wrath, great anger. Dunash, however, explained it as "with a little wrath," and this aligns with the Malbim's approach. Indeed, the two halves of the verse are parallel: "For a brief moment I abandoned you" corresponds to "in a surge [shetzef] of wrath I hid My face" - just as "a brief moment" there indicates brevity and smallness, so too here "a surge [shetzef] of wrath" means a slight wrath. Radak also cites in the name of his father that the meaning is a little wrath, supporting this from the Targum: Targum Yonatan translates it as "for a small hour I removed the countenance of My Shechinah from you" - that is, for a short time.
The Oath of the Waters of Noach
כִּי־מֵי נֹחַ זֹאת לִי אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּעְתִּי מֵעֲבֹר מֵי־נֹחַ עוֹד עַל־הָאָרֶץ כֵּן נִשְׁבַּעְתִּי מִקְּצֹף עָלַיִךְ וּמִגְּעׇר־בָּךְ׃ - For this is as the waters of Noach to Me, as I swore that the waters of Noach would never again pass over the earth, so have I sworn not to be wroth with you, nor to rebuke you.
First, regarding the textual variant: some read ki mei Noach as two words, from the word for water (mayim), while others have the reading ki-yemei Noach ("for as the days of Noach") as one word. The Minchat Shai notes that manuscript traditions differ on this: most texts have two words, ki mei, which follows the Sephardic reading tradition, while some texts read it as one word, similar to "as the days of [ki-yemei] her monthly impurity she shall be contaminated" (Vayikra 15:19). The Yemenite tradition reads ki-yemei as a single word.
Radak explains "the waters of Noach" as the waters of the Flood that occurred in the days of Noach, from which Noach was saved. The concept of the promise is: just as I swore that the waters of the Flood would never again pass over the earth - an irrevocable decree - so "have I sworn not to be wroth with you, nor to rebuke you." This aligns with what was explained earlier, so that the People of Israel should not fear that their return from exile is only temporary, like the Second Temple era, worrying lest we be exiled once again. No. Just as I swore that the waters of Noach would never pass again, and indeed there has never been another Flood in the world, so too this oath will never be revoked.
Where do we find an oath made to Noach? In the verses there is no explicit oath mentioned, and there are two explanations for this. Chazal say: just as repeating "no, no" is an oath, so too repeating "yes, yes" is an oath - one who states something twice, whether negatively or positively, is considered to have taken an oath. Here it is written, "never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood," and also, "never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth" - two negations, and the repetition indicates an oath. A second explanation, offered by Radak: the covenant itself is the oath, as in "And I will establish My covenant with you." A covenant (berit) signifies the enduring establishment of a matter, just as an oath signifies an enduring commitment. Indeed, in Aramaic an oath is translated with the root kayam (establishing): "Rachamana idkar lan keyameih de-Avraham rechima" - keyameih refers to his oath and covenant. Both a covenant and an oath are an absolute guarantee that the matter will be fulfilled under all circumstances, whereas a mere statement alone does not yet carry that absolute guarantee.
"Let Us Write It Down" - The Story of the Tana'im
It is told that once a tana'im (engagement agreement) was being drawn up, as is customary among Ashkenazim and nowadays almost everywhere, where both sides write down their financial obligations. One of the parties adamantly refused to sign: "What, do you not trust me? My word is my bond! Why do you need me to sign, am I a stranger?" And he refused to sign under any circumstances. One of the Torah giants of the generation was present, and they asked him what to do. The Rav told him: "You must sign. Look, when we pray to the Holy One, Blessed be He, for life, we are not satisfied with merely asking; we say, 'Inscribe us in the Book of Life.' Master of the Universe, until it is written down, we are not at ease! Would we say to the Holy One, Blessed be He, 'What, do You not trust us?' On the contrary, we ask for a written document, not merely verbal promises. And if we ask the Master of the Universe to write, you too can put it in writing." Seeing he had no way out, the man had to sign.
This is often the tactic of shifty characters and con artists: "You can trust me, what, don't you trust me? My word is my bond!" Contractors and handymen often take this approach too. The simple reply is: "I trust you a hundred percent, let us just write it down. Everything we agreed on - an outlet here, a faucet there - write it all down, and we will save ourselves many problems later." One of the great Torah figures, who served as a dayan in the rabbinical court of Rav Nissim Karelitz, remarked that eighty to ninety percent of the disputes brought to the rabbinical courts could have been resolved if only people had put everything in writing. And this is people's hesitation: "It feels awkward to insist on a written contract, as if I do not trust him" - and that is precisely where all the problems begin. Write everything down in advance, and you will prevent ninety percent of the issues. So too here: the Holy One, Blessed be He, gave us a covenant and written testament, and it is written down that this promise shall never change.
Malbim: Israel is Equal to the Entire World
The Malbim explains: just as I swore in the days of Noach that I would not bring a flood upon the world, because I had compassion upon the world that it should not be destroyed, so too the Congregation of Israel is as precious in My eyes as the entire world, and more than the entire world. To be wroth with Israel is as grave in My eyes as bringing a flood, and therefore I have sworn not to be wroth with you, nor to rebuke you. The Malbim notes precisely that there are two oaths here corresponding to the two situations mentioned earlier: "Not to be wroth with you" refers to the past, corresponding to "when a wife of youth is rejected," referring to the anger we provoked in our land; He will forgive those iniquities and will not be angry. "Nor to rebuke you" refers to the future, corresponding to "a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit," when Hashem exiled us; the Holy One, Blessed be He, promises that there will never be another exile, and never again will there be a situation where you are like a forsaken woman.
Noach and Moshe: The Teaching of the Ari
In the sefer Mishnat HaGilgulim, there is an entire discourse on the verse, "For this is as the waters of Noah to Me." The holy Ari quotes from Tikkunei HaZohar that Noah was reincarnated into Moses. The Zohar teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, originally planted Moses in the generation of the Flood, but that attempt did not succeed - that was Noah. And Noah, as is known, did not pray for his generation; he should have prayed and yet he did not, but instead went and built an ark, saving himself while failing to save his generation. Therefore, the Flood is named after him, "the waters of Noah," which is a frightening and sobering concept. Imagine if the Holocaust of European Jewry were named "the Holocaust of David," after one individual held to blame. So too here: should the catastrophe be named after Noah, the sole righteous man? Rather, had he prayed, he could have saved his generation, and because he did not, the Flood bears his name.
From this also stems the reason why Moses prayed repeatedly for his generation all his days. Noah spent one hundred and twenty years building the ark, and Moses our Teacher lived one hundred and twenty years to complete those years. It was said to Moses, "For you have found grace in My eyes," and where do we find this exact phrase earlier? "And Noah found grace in the eyes of Hashem." Noah was saved in an ark (teivah), and Moses in his infancy was placed in an ark (teivah). And Moses pleaded, "Erase me (mecheini) now from Your book which You have written" - meaning, if I do not succeed in rectifying what I damaged back then by failing to pray for my generation, I would be repeating that very same sin; and the word mecheini (מחני) shares the exact letters of Mei Noach (מי נח, the waters of Noah). Regarding the generation of the Flood it is said, "And He blotted out (vayimach) all existence." Therefore, Moses specifically used the language of erasure: for I deserved to perish back then in the Flood. The work contains an entire exposition detailing the parallels between Noah and Moses, and how Moses our Teacher rectified everything that occurred with Noah.
"For the mountains may depart"
כִּי הֶהָרִים יָמוּשׁוּ וְהַגְּבָעוֹת תְּמוּטֶינָה וְחַסְדִּי מֵאִתֵּךְ לֹא־יָמוּשׁ וּבְרִית שְׁלוֹמִי לֹא תָמוּט אָמַר מְרַחֲמֵךְ יְהֹוָה׃ - "For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall My covenant of peace be removed," says Hashem Who has compassion on you.
Rashi explains: Even if the merit of the Patriarchs, who are likened to mountains, and the merit of the Matriarchs, who are likened to hills, should ever run out, nevertheless, "My kindness shall not depart from you."
Why the Patriarchs Are Mountains and the Matriarchs Are Hills - The Insight of the Torah Temimah
There is a wonderful explanation in the Torah Temimah on the first chapter of Bereshit. The concepts of male and female do not apply only to human beings and animals, but encompass all varieties of creation: even within plant life there is male and female, as well as in the inanimate world. The Gemara in Bava Batra 74b teaches: Everything that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world, He created male and female. In Shabbat 157a mention is made of "arza ve'shucha" - male cedar and female cedar. The same applies to the male and female date palm, as is well known today: for a palm tree to yield dates, it must be pollinated with pollen from a male palm; without this, one gets dates like those found on highway medians, round like olives and completely inedible - because the palm was never pollinated.
What, then, is the deeper meaning of male and female? The Torah Temimah explains that within every creation there is the dimension of an active giver (mashpia) and the dimension of a receptive vessel (mekabel). The imparting force is called male, and the recipient is called female. Why, then, is the Holy One, blessed be He, referred to in the masculine? A feminist activist once argued that men invented the concept of God and therefore fashioned Him as male, questioning who decided that Hashem is male rather than female. Yet how foolish such an idea is: physical categories of male and female have no relevance whatsoever to the Master of the Universe. Rather, when we speak of the Holy One, blessed be He, we refer to the dimension of pure giving without receiving - and that is the male aspect. When the Torah speaks in the feminine, it refers to a specific sefirah: the Shechinah is the sefirah of Malchut, the female principle (nukva), which receives from all the higher sefirot and channels the divine flow down into the lower worlds. But with the Holy One, blessed be He, only the dimension of the ultimate giver applies. It turns out that the entire cosmos is structured upon givers and receivers.
In light of this, the Gemara in Chagigah 15a is beautifully resolved: Everything that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world, He created alongside its counterpart - He created mountains, He created hills; He created seas, He created rivers; and regarding this it is said, "God has made the one opposite the other." The commentators struggled to explain this, but in light of this approach, the idea is magnificent: "its counterpart" means that for everything that acts as a giver, there is opposite it a recipient - akin to "a helper opposite him" (ezer kenegdo). Through this we can also understand what the Sages taught in Rosh Hashanah 11a on the verse, "Leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills": "Leaping over the mountains" refers to the merit of the Patriarchs; "bounding over the hills" refers to the merit of the Matriarchs. Mountains represent the male, imparting force, whereas the hills, which are lower, represent the recipient. So too in our verse: in the Yerushalmi (Sanhedrin 10:1), the Sages expounded, "For the mountains may depart" - these are the Patriarchs; "and the hills be removed" - this is the merit of the Matriarchs. This accords wonderfully with the Malbim's explanation that hills are physically supported by mountains - just as a recipient relies upon a giver.
The Two Explanations of the Radak
The Radak explains: Even if the mountains depart and the hills are removed - occurrences that are theoretically possible within the laws of nature. There are times when half a mountain breaks away from its place, and times when an earthquake topples a mountain entirely. Such things can happen, but it will never happen that My kindness and My covenant will depart from you. Mountains and hills would sooner depart, rare as that is, before the kindness of the Holy One, blessed be He, would ever be withdrawn from us. This is the most definite and absolute guarantee.
Another explanation offered by the Radak: The reference is to the celestial princes of the nations, who seek to prevent us from returning to our land, who wage war against us and cause us distress. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: All those princes who seek to bar Israel from returning to their land and to withhold the bounty destined for us, along with all the prosecuting angels in Heaven - the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed; every one of them will be displaced and toppled. But "My kindness shall not depart from you" - My lovingkindness toward Israel will never cease and will never fail.
The Malbim: Mash and Mat, Chesed and Covenant
The Malbim adds depth here. It is not only that it is hard in My eyes to destroy Israel just as it is hard in My eyes to destroy the entire world, as stated in the previous verse, but even if it were conceivable that the mountains would depart and I would wipe all existence off the face of the earth and the oath of the Flood would be nullified - "yet My kindness from you shall not depart." As it were: you are more important than all of this.
The Malbim makes a precise distinction in Lashon Hakodesh between the root mush ("depart") and mot ("totter" or "collapse"). Mush refers to something being moved intentionally, by an external force; mot is when something collapses on its own due to weakness. Proofs of this: "The pillar of cloud did not depart (lo yamish) by day," "he did not depart (lo yamish) from inside the tent" - always intentional. In contrast, mot comes from feebleness and lack of support: "and his means falter (umatah yado) beside you" - what can he do, he collapses; "when my foot slipped (bemot ragli)." Similarly: "it does not depart from its place (mimmekomo lo yamish)," "to prepare an idol that will not totter (lo yimmot)" - that will not collapse on its own; "and half of the mountain shall depart (ve-mash) toward the north" - Hashem will move it; "like Mount Zion, which will not totter (lo yimmot)" - it will not collapse on its own.
According to this: regarding the supreme Chesed, which comes from Him, may He be blessed, collapsing on its own does not apply. It is impossible for His Chesed to collapse by itself; it could only be that Hashem would intentionally remove it (yamish) from us. On the other hand, regarding the covenant of peace between us and Him, "removing" (lehamish) does not apply: we cannot abolish it, and as it were, the Holy One, blessed be He, does not abolish it either, for we are bound to one another. What could happen to it? It could totter and collapse (timmot), if we do not strengthen it.
And the nimshal: the great mountains are Hashem's acts of Chesed, and the hills leaning upon them are the covenant between us and Him. The covenant rests upon the infinite kindness of the Holy One, blessed be He, and not on our merits - for had it rested upon our merits, woe to us, as our merits were exhausted long ago. Therefore, if Hashem, in His great power, were to decide to remove the mountains - that is, to withdraw His kindness from us - the hills resting upon them would naturally collapse on their own: the covenant would fall, for its entire support is based solely on Chesed. But since the mountains will not depart - for the Chesed of Hashem does not depend on the deeds of mortals below but on His blessed will, and is therefore an enduring reality that will never depart - consequently, "neither shall My covenant of peace totter." As long as His infinite Chesed continues, the hills that lean upon it stand forever.
In summary:
In these verses, the prophet promises Knesset Yisrael a twofold consolation: erasing the internal shame over the sins of the Temple era, and erasing the humiliation from others over the disgrace of exile. According to the Radak, this is a promise of a redemption that will never be followed by exile and shame; and according to the Malbim, it is a promise of completely erasing the entire past - the shame of youth will be entirely forgotten, and the disgrace of widowhood will be remembered no more. The Holy One, blessed be He, Who is both our Maker and our Husband, gathers us with great compassion and forgives iniquity with everlasting kindness; the wrath and the concealment are nothing more than a brief moment and a fleeting burst of anger compared to the greatness of the salvation. And just as He swore that the waters of Noah would never pass again, so He swore against being wroth over the past and rebuking in the future, for Israel is as precious before Him as the entire world and even more. And finally: even if the mountains should depart and the hills totter, His kindness will not depart and His covenant of peace will not totter - for our covenant with Him rests not upon our merits, but upon His infinite kindness, which depends solely on His blessed will.