"And it shall be, when you multiply and become fruitful in the land in those days, says Hashem, they shall no longer say, the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem, nor shall it come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they miss it, nor shall it be made again." This is a loaded pasuk, a packed pasuk, a pasuk that requires explanation. "They shall no longer say, the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem, nor shall it come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they miss it, nor shall it be made again." What are all these "nots" doing here, and what is it that they will not say, and what does "the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem" mean?
The Ark of the Covenant of Hashem. Rashi explains that your entire coming will be holy. They will no longer need or seek out the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem in order to be saved from war. And even though in the written verses we see this matter only once, in the episode of Eli, it is reasonable that after what happened then in the episode of Eli, when the Ark of God was captured, they no longer repeated this. But it is implied that this had indeed been their practice in the past. And then, since there will be no wars, they will no longer say, the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem. And so he says, "they shall no longer say, nor shall it come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they miss it, nor shall it be made." The meaning is that all these things, it will not even enter their minds to bring out the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem to war, simply because there will be no wars.
The Metzudat David explains, "they shall no longer say, the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem," he says they will not say let us go before the Ark to pray to Hashem. And why? He says there will be such a tremendous crowd, since all the people will already want to come and pray, the land will be filled with knowledge and understanding, so consequently there will no longer be room for people to come and pray. "Nor shall it be made again" - so perhaps they will make other arks that also have holiness within them, and come before them to pray? He says they will not make other arks so as to be able to go before one of these arks, since the dwelling of the Divine Presence will be throughout all of Yerushalayim and their prayer will be accepted everywhere, and they will not need additional arks.
The Malbim explains that after Bnei Yisrael were in a state of being the few, the navi promises us: know this, Bnei Yisrael, they are one from a city, they are two from a family, but you will multiply. This is the promise of our pasuk, "and it shall be, when you multiply and become fruitful in the land." Even though you are few, one from a city and two from a family, meaning scattered individual grains, nevertheless He promises that we will multiply in the land. And when we are gathered into the land, all will be righteous, "and it shall come to pass that he who is left in Tzion, holy shall he be called." "They shall no longer say, the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem." Listen to an original explanation the Malbim gives. The Malbim says that the reality today is that thought does not agree with speech, and speech does not agree with thought, and thought does not agree with action. What this means is that we often recognize that a person has plans, but when he wants to implement them, to carry them out, everything vanishes. And we often know that a person even has a sincere and true desire, but he has great difficulty in implementation. So speech, a person often says I will do, and this does not agree with the thought, because sometimes his thought has no such plan. And sometimes a person does have a thought to do something, but in practice he does not do it. So in short, we have a disconnect between thought, speech, and action. So even though they speak with their mouths and say, the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem, meaning they relate to it with holiness, speak about it and glorify it, the Torah scroll is within it, the Holy of Holies, the Keruvim are upon it, the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem, they speak of it with great esteem, but in truth it is far from their hearts. For if it were close to their hearts, then they would occupy themselves with Torah, they would fulfill the mitzvot of Hashem. But this is what is called external recitations, like heads of government who, in order to gather votes, say "with God's help" before the elections. Right? Because perhaps there will be a few for whom this will have an influence. They go to visit the Kotel so that pictures can be taken from every angle, how they photograph him, there is no Torah scroll, he has some kippah, and each time he switches his kippah so that they can publicize it everywhere, sometimes a knitted one, sometimes black, sometimes small, this way for all the audiences, in order to find favor. He says the words you speak, the external performances, do not match what is happening deep in the heart. Today they say, the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem, they are seemingly enthralled by the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem, but in truth, says the Malbim, you see that it is far from them, their hearts are far from their speech, they do not take it to heart. And even if they do take the Ark to heart, in practice they do not act. They do not fulfill the words of the covenant written in the Ark. But He says that in the future it will not be so. And note how he arranges the pasuk. He says: then they shall no longer say, the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem, nor shall it come to mind. He says it will not be like today, when they say the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem yet it does not come to mind. He says: then they shall no longer say, the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem, at a time when it does not come to mind. There will not be a situation where people merely recite the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem while, God forbid, it does not come to mind. Rather, whoever says the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem will have true intention in his heart, great esteem for the Ark, fulfillment of what is written in the Ark. It will not be like today when people say, the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem, and it does not come to their hearts. Then there will not be such a situation. Whoever truly says the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem, then both in his heart and in his deeds his heart and his deeds will be whole, and his heart will not be divided from his deeds, and his speech will not be divided from his belief in his heart. He says: then they will not remember it, nor miss it, nor do it. This is not like now, when they mention and recall in their thoughts the Ark of the Covenant, but "it shall not be made again." He does not do as it is written. He remembers, he says, but does not do it anymore. What is that worth? It comes to mind, they remember it, they recall it, but they still do not do what is written. He says: then it will not be so. Rather, the moment they remember, they will immediately act. In simple words, thought and action will proceed together in one furrow, not like today when thought is far from action. The Malbim has a full explanation here in the section explaining the words, to explain on what basis he gave this explanation, for he explains it according to the grammar of Lashon HaKodesh, but we will not dwell on this, since he elaborates at length in his explanation.
"At that time they shall call Yerushalayim the Throne of Hashem, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, for the Name of Hashem, to Yerushalayim, and they shall no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil heart." At that time, not only will the nations not come to Yerushalayim to wage war, as the Radak explained that this is the meaning of "they shall not say, the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem," they will not need the Ark for wars, so not only will they not come to wage war, but furthermore the nations will call Yerushalayim the Throne of Hashem. They will be gathered to it, from the language of "mikveh," the gathering of waters, the nations will be gathered to it in order to serve Hashem. Not only will they not come to wage war, they will come here on pilgrimage journeys, but not for their vanities, rather to bow before Hashem. There is some difficulty here in the pasuk, "and all the nations shall be gathered to it, for the Name of Hashem, to Yerushalayim." If you already said "to it," that is to Yerushalayim, for you said "at that time they shall call Yerushalayim the Throne of Hashem, and they shall be gathered to it," then "they shall be gathered to it" refers to Yerushalayim. Why is it necessary to say "to Yerushalayim" again? So the Radak explains that each one will say to his friend, let us go to Yerushalayim. Let us go to Yerushalayim. The name of Yerushalayim will be on everyone's lips. So it is not merely that they will go there, but they will also encourage one another and say, to Yerushalayim, we are going to Yerushalayim. "And they shall no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil heart" - meaning neither Bnei Yisrael nor the nations. What is "the stubbornness of their heart"? The Radak explains it plainly, from the language of "shrir," firm. "The stubbornness of their heart" - they have a hard heart, and everything is firm and clear and established. What is "shrir"? Strong, hard. In contrast, Rashi explains differently, and the Malbim follows Rashi's direction. "Sherirut" is a term of seeing, as in "from the hills I behold it," and "the daughters marched upon the wall (shur)." "Shur" there is a term for a wall. Why is it called a wall? Why is it called "shur"? Because from there they would see, "look and behold," right? Whoever remembers. From there they see, from there they would look out. So then what is written here, "they shall not follow the stubbornness of their evil heart," means they will not follow the vision of their heart, whose heart saw only evil and was drawn to evil. They will not follow the vision of their heart, for "sherirut" is a term of seeing, like "I behold it but not now, I see it but not near," which is also a term of seeing.
The Malbim explains, "at that time they shall call Yerushalayim the Throne of Hashem." Until now, when one wants to say where His place of dwelling is, one says in the heavens. Hashem's throne is in the heavens. But at that time they shall call Yerushalayim the Throne of Hashem. Hashem, as it were, will return His dwelling, His throne, here; His kingship and governance will be in the land. Now Hashem has established His throne in the heavens. What is the meaning of "in the heavens"? The Malbim says that the governance of the Holy One, blessed be He, is, as it were, according to the laws of the heavens, according to the laws of nature. The governance of the Holy One, blessed be He, is not in a miraculous manner. But in contrast, then, at that time, they shall call Yerushalayim the Throne of Hashem. There will be miraculous governance beyond nature, until it will appear as though Hashem is sitting here with us. This is the throne upon which the Holy One, blessed be He, sits, watching over us and ruling over us in a revealed manner, governance beyond nature. And therefore, through this, the nations will be gathered to it. They will come and be gathered here, not to wage war but to eat of its fruit, for the Name of Hashem. And "to Yerushalayim" - the Malbim too has difficulty with what "to it, to Yerushalayim" means. He says it is because of the importance of the city. Yerushalayim will be a city of great importance. So the United States will regret that for years it did not want to place its embassy in Yerushalayim. Right? They decide what Yerushalayim is, do you understand? They are the ones who will decide. He tells you, do not worry, in the end even Obama will come here on all fours. They will come to Yerushalayim, they will be gathered to it for the Name of Hashem. Why? To pray. They will come here to know the Name of Hashem. "And they shall no longer follow the stubbornness of their heart," meaning they will not follow their own way, in which they look and see what they want to see, and this refers to the claims of heresy and all the arguments denying the way of Hashem. They will not follow the stubbornness of their heart, but rather all will recognize the kingship of Hashem, the oneness of Hashem, the Torah of Hashem.
"In those days the house of Yehudah shall go with the house of Yisrael, and they shall come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance." "In those days the house of Yehudah shall go with the house of Yisrael" - meaning they will join with them, be added to them in order to be one kingdom. The Radak explains that "on" here means "with," like "and the men came with (al) the women," meaning together with the women. So in those days the house of Yehudah shall go with the house of Yisrael, and they shall come together from the land of the north. From the land of the north, we know that the tribes were exiled to the land of the north, Chalach, Chavor, the river Gozan, the cities of Madai, Sefarvaim, all these are from the land of the north, east and onward to Bavel. And then in those days there will be the ingathering of exiles. What does the house of Yehudah have to do with this? After all, the house of Yehudah is here, the house of Yehudah was exiled to Bavel and returned. The Metzudat David explains here that the meaning is those who were exiled from the cities of Yehudah by Sancheriv king of Ashur and did not return in the Second Temple period. Therefore they will need to be gathered from the land of the north. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I will gather them all, and they, together with the Ten Tribes, will go with the house of Yisrael, which is the Ten Tribes, as it is written, "and He will gather the dispersed of Yisrael." And they will join as one, not like today, meaning at the time of the prophecy, when the kingdom is divided, but rather in the future there will be a unified kingdom, with only one king, and not like the reality in which the kingdom was divided after the death of Shlomo.
The Malbim explains that what is written, "in those days the house of Yehudah shall go with the house of Yisrael, and they shall come together from the land of the north to (al) the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance," he says, what is the meaning of "al" the land? It means "to" the land. So why is it written "al"? Why is it not written "and they shall come to the land"? He says that "al" here means "for the sake of." Meaning, a person can leave another land and come to a land for two reasons. One reason, since the land is holy, the land is precious, the land is important, because of its virtue he wants to come here. And there is another reason he might come here, and unfortunately many times this was the main reason, because he was persecuted in that land. So he finds refuge and shelter in the land here. And then it turns out that the virtue is much lesser, because I came as a fugitive, I did not come because of the land's virtue but because things were bad for me there. And if it had been good for me there, I would have continued to dwell there. He says: know that it will not be so in the future. Rather, know that in the future "they shall come together from the land of the north to (al) the land." What is "al" the land? For the sake of the land. Not because they are fleeing from another place, but rather their entire coming will be for the sake of the land.
"And I said, how shall I set you among the children, and give you a desirable land, an inheritance of beauty, of the hosts of nations; and I said, you shall call Me My Father, and shall not turn away from following Me." "And I said" in My heart, says Rashi, "how shall I set you among the children," meaning how shall I set you, Bnei Yisrael, My congregation and My nation, how shall I place you among the rest of the children? Meaning, how shall I place you together with the rest of the nations? The Holy One, blessed be He, says: and since this is so, I separated you from them, "and give you a desirable land" so that the rest of the children not corrupt you, as we will explain shortly, so I said to separate you, that you not have a connection with the rest of the nations. The Radak explains that everything we have seen until now, the Holy One, blessed be He, will fulfill it all in the End of Days. And He says, even though you will be in exile for many days, you are destined to be redeemed. Note, according to the Radak the entire pasuk here is explained regarding the time of the navi. It is not "and I said, how shall I set you among the children" in the future, but rather the navi is now speaking about his own time. And he says to them: but if you desire, now you will not be exiled. After all, what am I speaking to you about? About the future redemption, after you are exiled, the house of Yehudah and the house of Yisrael will be gathered here, there will be a complete kingdom, everything good and beautiful. But now the navi says to them: I want to speak with you about the present, not about the future. And what I want to tell you now is, "and I said, how shall I set you among the children." I said, after all you are children to Hashem your God; I am now thinking how to place you now as children. "And give you" - and give you a desirable land now, not about the future. That is to say, you still have the possibility, you are still in the land, you have the possibility not to be exiled. So set aside what will be in the future, come and change the reality now. I will leave you in the land, that the land shall be a desirable land, a desirable land meaning that everyone covets it. "An inheritance of beauty (tzvi)" - this too means "tzvi" from the language of desire, that everyone desires it, wishes for it. The Targum explains "tzvi" as being from the language of "tzivot goyim" (the hosts of nations), "the joy and praise of the peoples," meaning that all the nations praise it. How will this be? Through My setting you among the children, I will give you a desirable land, you will call Me My Father, you will not turn away from following Me. And then through this, says the Holy One, blessed be He, you will remain here. So why should we speak about the future if you can still change the present?
The Malbim explains that all this refers to the past. That is to say, everything He says to them here, He is speaking with them about what happened. What I planned in advance and did not come to fruition, you ruined and it did not come to fruition. According to the Radak, what the Holy One, blessed be He, says here is: now change. According to the Malbim, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: let Me tell you what My plans were and how you dissolved all those plans. The Holy One, blessed be He, says to them: then all the nations will be gathered to Yerushalayim, the whole world will recognize the faith in Hashem. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: know that from the beginning this was My plan, to separate you from the nations, that you not have a connection with them, that you have your own land, a special land. And He compares this to a daughter who is among many sons, and the father is concerned about placing her dwelling among them, lest they harm her, lest they injure her, lest they lead her into bad ways. So what did he do? He gave her a special place of inheritance, so that this place of inheritance would not be connected to the others, would not be connected to the sons, so that she not come to spiritual deterioration among the rest of the sons. And therefore what does he do? He gives her an inheritance, a field and a vineyard, he gives her a special inheritance. "And I said, how shall I set you among the children" - you shall not mingle with the nations. I gave you a desirable land. What is a desirable land? First, in itself it is a desirable land, everyone covets it. Second, it is "an inheritance of beauty (nachalat tzvi)." "Inheritance" is a term for something that endures forever, that exists for all generations; that is called a "nachalah." And so I said to Myself, this thing will be an inheritance for you forever. And He says in His heart, through its being a desirable land, "you shall call Me My Father." You will recognize that I am your Father. You will recognize that I bestow only good upon you, you will acknowledge My kindness. And through its being an inheritance of beauty, meaning as we said an inheritance signifies eternal existence, I gave you such a gift that will exist forever, eternally, Eretz Yisrael ours forever, then "you shall not turn away from following Me." So consequently you will not disobey Hashem, you will not turn away from following Hashem. This is what I thought. And behold, what happened? "Surely as a woman betrays her companion (mere'a), so have you betrayed Me, house of Yisrael, says Hashem." But, says the Holy One, blessed be He, the plans ran aground. There were wonderful plans, this is what I wanted from the start. And what were the results? You did not behave like a daughter to whom her father was good, but rather you behaved like a woman who betrays her companion, meaning her husband. So have you betrayed Me, house of Yisrael.
The Malbim has some difficulty: why is it written "woman," "surely as a woman betrays mere'a"? Why not "her companion"? Did she betray away from him? She betrayed him. Therefore he explains that "mere'a" means "by reason of the evil." Since the evil betrayed her, so have you betrayed Me, as though, as though I betrayed you. The betrayal that you commit against Me is as if it were by reason of Me, "mere'a," by reason of evil. As though it was by reason of her husband that she betrayed him. What is "by reason of her husband"? As though he did not treat them properly. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: and did I not treat you properly? Is not everything I gave you given to you above and beyond what you deserved? And behold, see how much good I bestowed upon you, and what did you do? "As a woman betrays her companion, so have you betrayed Me, house of Yisrael, says Hashem."
"A voice is heard upon the heights, the weeping and supplications of Bnei Yisrael, for they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Hashem their God." "A voice upon the heights," the Radak explains that the meaning is the high places. "A voice is heard upon the heights," meaning they go up onto the heights in order to make the voice heard far off. In their times public address systems were not yet at all common, so in order to announce, one does not use loudspeakers with many decibels, but rather one simply goes up onto the mountain and shouts. There is the Mount of Shouting, right? There is an echo, and they go up to a high place and through this his voice is heard far off, and this is how they would muster an army for war, and they would shout. Why? Because this is how they would gather them, they would gather them by way of shouts. So "a voice is heard upon the heights," the high places, the voice is heard far off when they confess. The Radak says, what is the meaning of these words? It would have been fitting for them that their voice be heard far off upon the heights. That is to say, after all you did, then "a voice is heard upon the heights, the weeping and supplications of Bnei Yisrael." This is what I should have heard. People standing on the mountains, weeping and pleading. And what are they saying? "For they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Hashem their God." They need to regret and weep and say, we have forgotten Hashem. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: if they had done so, I would have accepted them. I would have said to them, "return, wayward children, I will heal your waywardness." And then they would say, "here we are, we come to You, for You are Hashem our God," which is essentially the continuation of the pesukim. If you had done so, a voice heard upon the heights, then I would have said to you, return, wayward children. But you do not act this way.
The Malbim explains that here he metaphorically describes hearing two voices. Two distinct voices. First, a voice is heard upon the heights. He hears a voice that bursts upon the high mountains, for "heights" are the high places. Second, he hears a voice from the valley, a second voice of the supplications of Bnei Yisrael. And then he describes Bnei Yisrael as though they are like a lost sheep. They are like a wandering sheep. And the Holy One, blessed be He, is as though standing on the mountain and searching for His sheep. Searching for His lamb. And then He calls to her. And this is "a voice is heard upon the heights." The shepherd is upon the heights, on the high mountain, and he shouts, where are you? Where is my sheep? And then the sheep, "the weeping and supplications of Bnei Yisrael." There in the valley she weeps, she grieves. And the reason is that she forgot the voice of the shepherd. Therefore she does not recognize that the one calling her is actually the shepherd. And why? How is this? "For they have perverted their way." He says: why do I hear these two voices? Because Yisrael have perverted their way, they weep in the valley, they have actually lost the way. And they also do not recognize the voice of the shepherd calling upon the heights, because "they have forgotten Hashem their God." So if they had known Hashem and remembered Hashem, they would have recognized the voice and returned. But since they have forgotten Hashem their God, then consequently the voice of the shepherd is heard upon the heights, the Holy One, blessed be He, calling to Bnei Yisrael, and Bnei Yisrael still wander in the valley like a lost sheep who do not understand that the voice calling upon them is the voice of the Holy One, blessed be He, for they have forgotten Hashem.
Therefore the navi says, "Return, wayward children, I will heal your waywardness; here we are, we come to You, for You are Hashem our God." Let us first explain what the Malbim explains. He says: corresponding to what I said earlier, "a voice is heard upon the heights," do you know what the voice heard upon the mountains is? What voice is heard? The voice of the shepherd crying out and saying, return, wayward children. This is the Holy One, blessed be He, crying out with His voice that Bnei Yisrael return, "I will heal your waywardness." On the other hand, now he says, what do Bnei Yisrael say? What does the sheep answer? Bnei Yisrael say, the weeping and supplications, "here we are, we come to You." This "hineinu" here, according to the commentators here, both the Radak and the Minchat Shai, is not with a dagesh, it is not "hineinu" but "hineinu," both nuns are soft. They cry out and say, here we are, we come to You, You are our God, You are Hashem our God, we ask to return to You. "Surely in vain from the hills, the tumult on the mountains; surely in Hashem our God is the salvation of Yisrael." This is the next pasuk, and essentially they come here and cry out and say, we are ready to return to You, we are ready to acknowledge that in vain from the hills is the tumult on the mountains; as though they say, corresponding to the voice standing on the heights, we come to You, You are Hashem our God, but we do not recognize Your voice. We do not know the place to which we must return. For "in vain from the hills the tumult." "Hamon" (tumult/multitude), as is known, the Malbim always explains, why is it called "hamon"? Because it is from the language of "hemyah" (murmuring). When there is a multitude, the place murmurs. There is talk, there is noise, there is murmuring. "Hamon" always expresses murmuring. So when one speaks of a multitude of great waters or of a multitude, since there is murmuring, then the quantity is considered a "hamon." This is the expression. "For in vain from the hills the tumult of the mountains." He describes that corresponding to the voice that goes out from among the mountains, the hills answer with an echo. For one who stands on the mountains shouts an echo, then from the hills one hears an echo, echo, echo, echo, echo, there is an echo, there is a reverberation. So the one standing in the valley hears one voice or several voices? He hears many voices. He hears the voice, but he hears the echo that repeats the words over and over. And if so, he does not know where the truth is. And this is actually what they say, "surely in vain from the hills the tumult of the mountains." Since there are hills and there is a multitude, as we said this is from the language of murmuring, "hamon," the sound of the murmuring of the mountains is heard, that the echoing voice answers back, this is the echo, so "in vain." That is, we will not return to You only in vain. What this means is that the true prophets tell us to return to You, the false prophets say that we should go in vain, to serve idolatry. And we do not know how to distinguish which is the voice of truth. The voice of the false prophets or the voice of the true prophets? We call them the false prophets, so it is clear to us that this is falsehood. But to them it sounded very, very true. So there are all these prophets who call us to serve idolatry, and all the prophets of Hashem who call us to return to Hashem, and this is like the voice calling upon the mountains that has echoes. And these echoes are the prophets, the false prophets, who as it were also call, and then we become confused: where is the Holy One, blessed be He? Where is He located? For I hear this voice from several directions. So where must I return? And then they come and raise a further claim: here we are, we come to You, for You are Hashem our God, surely in Hashem our God is the salvation of Yisrael. That is, they say to Him: Master of the Universe, we cannot return. We are very impoverished. In Hashem our God is the salvation of Yisrael. What this means is that we need Your help. The salvation of Yisrael is in Hashem our God. If Hashem our God, so to speak, draws us, brings us out of the trouble, and this is the eternal debate of Knesset Yisrael with the Holy One, blessed be He. For the Holy One, blessed be He, says, "return, wayward children," and Knesset Yisrael says, "return us, Hashem, to You, and we shall return." The debate is who will begin? Must it come from us or from the Holy One, blessed be He? The Holy One, blessed be He, says: you begin. And then I will open for you an opening like the opening of a hall. But we say: Master of the Universe, here we are, we come to You, but we are weak. We have no strength. And therefore, Master of the Universe, we ask that You perform the action, that You be the one who returns us to You, surely in Hashem our God is the salvation of Yisrael, only through Hashem our God will there be the salvation of Yisrael.
The Malbim explains that there is a difference between "atanu" (we come) and "banu" (we came). "Atanu" to entreat Your presence, not "banu." What is the difference between "atanu" and "banu"? "Here we are, we come (atanu) to You, for You are Hashem our God." Why is the term "atanu" used? The Malbim says that "atanu" indicates an absolute arrival. What this means is that it would appear as though "atanu," we have come in an absolute sense. But he says: "surely we come (atanu) to You" means that the "atanu" is in vain. Why? Because in practice, what do we expect? That You, Hashem, will do it. You came, so did you return? No, no, no, that Hashem should return me. That Hashem should be the one who acts. And then it emerges that all this "atanu" is "surely in vain from the hills, the tumult of the mountains." One hears the multitude going out from the mountains, so all our coming is in vain. According to Rashi, this entire pasuk is actually an instruction from the navi on how to confess. The navi tells them: you must say to the Holy One, blessed be He - for the Holy One, blessed be He, says "return, wayward children, I will heal your waywardness" - where "I will heal" means healing, and the Radak explains that the meaning is forgiveness, and this comes by way of borrowing the term. Just as healing heals the body, so the Holy One, blessed be He, says "I will heal your waywardness," meaning all your waywardness, your rebellion, I will heal. The meaning is healing, to remove the corruption that is within you in the soul, and this is what is called healing of the soul. Healing of the soul is not with medications, it is with mussar, it is with fear of Heaven. So the Holy One, blessed be He, says: I will heal your waywardness. The navi says: how must you come to confess? Say, "here we are, we come to You, for You are Hashem our God." This is how you shall confess, say "surely in vain from the hills, the tumult of the mountains." All that we went and served idolatry to the mountains was all in vain, and we, "in Hashem our God is the salvation of Yisrael." It availed us nothing, in vain we served idolatry, idolatry did not save us, idolatry did not help us. After all, the idolaters place their gods on the mountains, and it becomes clear to us that in vain from the hills is the tumult of the mountains, it was all in vain, without benefit. So what? Surely in Hashem our God is the salvation of Yisrael. Say this to the Holy One, blessed be He, when you return before Him, and through this He will accept your repentance.
The Radak further says regarding "in vain from the hills," he says we would expect from the hills - who are the hills? These are the nations. Also from the mountains, we would expect a multitude of nations to come to our aid. But this expectation was an expectation in vain. We expected from a god who does not save. "The salvation of Yisrael is in Hashem our God" - the meaning is that the eyes of the Holy One, blessed be He, are upon us for good when we walk in His ways. And not like the rest of the nations. Therefore Hashem is called the salvation of Yisrael, for through Him there is salvation, there is individual providence over Bnei Yisrael. The Malbim explains that what is written here, "the tumult of the mountains," the Malbim in many places explains according to that same line, that "hamon" is in the sense of murmuring. "Hamon" is the meaning of a great sound and noise. So "the tumult of the mountains," since we shout to the mountains, then we receive the echo as a returning voice. This is called "the tumult of the mountains." And this fits what the Malbim explained above, "return, wayward children, I will heal your waywardness" etc., and then as it were Bnei Yisrael say, we hear the tumult of the mountains and we do not know who this is and what it is, we do not know how to distinguish the voice, which is a voice from Hashem and when is it a voice from idolatry. So this is what he explained here in these words, "from the hills the tumult of the mountains." So "in vain," we do not know from where the voice of truth comes.
"And the shame has consumed the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters." What is "the shame"? As we saw above, Rashi explained that here the navi is actually teaching them how to confess. And he tells them to say this. That is, in what manner to express the confession. And what shall they say? "The shame has consumed the labor of our fathers from our youth." "The shame" is idolatry. As we saw that it is written regarding Yerubosheth, Yeruba'al. What did he worship? The Ba'al, this is called Yeruba'al. So whoever went out against the Ba'al was called Yeruba'al, "let the Ba'al contend against him," meaning let the Ba'al strive with him. So Yerubosheth is the same idea, let the shame (bosheth) contend against him. You see, then, that the Ba'al is called "bosheth" (shame). Why? Because shame and disgrace are for one who involves himself with the Ba'al. Whoever involves himself with idolatry has shame and disgrace, for there are no other results, no other benefit from it. So it has only shame and disgrace. "And the shame has consumed the labor of our fathers from our youth." "Yegia" (labor) is the produce of the field. That is, the shame, the Ba'al, caused that as punishment for this sin of serving idolatry, the produce was consumed by blight and mildew and locusts and the enemies. And likewise this consumed the flocks and the herds, the sons and the daughters who died in pestilence, all through the sin of idolatry. So the shame has consumed the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks, their herds, their sons and their daughters. We know that the shame is what consumed everything, the Ba'al is what caused us all these damages, and in fact we recognize this from our youth. All this is essentially a language of confession, that they confess and say: we recognize that all the damage that befell us was because of the corrupt way in which we walked, because of the Ba'al whom we served from our time, from the time of our fathers.
"Therefore let us lie down in our shame, and let our disgrace cover us, for against Hashem our God we have sinned, we and our fathers, from our youth until this day, and we have not heeded the voice of Hashem our God." "Let us lie down in our shame" - we too, like our fathers, who were lax regarding their shame, so too after them we walk in that same way, and we too shall lie down in our shame. What is the meaning of "let us lie down"? The Radak explains that a person who is in great trouble and does not know what to do often reaches a state of collapse. He lies down. Despairing. He lies in bed, covers himself with a blanket, does nothing. Why? Because he is in such great trouble, he is in such depression, in such despair, that in this state he has no desire to see anything, he has no desire to do anything. He says: we are in such great trouble that we have nothing to do, we have no solution, as it were. So what do we do? Let us lie down in our shame. As it is written, "if you lie among the sheepfolds," or "and I was like one who lies in the heart of the sea," "or like one who lies at the top of the mast." And then "let our disgrace cover us." The meaning is as it is written, "and the shame of my face has covered me" - from our youth and from my youth. The meaning is, from our youth we did evil as we saw our fathers do, and regarding this, let our disgrace cover us, for against Hashem our God we have sinned, we and our fathers, from our youth. So regarding this, shame covers us. The Metzudat David explains that "let us lie down in our shame" means, as it were, he portrays the shame metaphorically as a bed, and then he says, we lie upon this bed. This is the meaning of "let us lie down in our shame." And the Malbim says that this reality of lying down in shame means we cannot do anything. The Malbim says there is a difference between "bosheth" (shame) and "kelimah" (disgrace). Shame is always from myself. I am ashamed of myself, without anyone shaming me. I am ashamed of myself, I see what I did, I regret it, shame covers me. In contrast, I will not say disgrace covers me unless someone else disgraces my face. That is to say, shame is something that comes from within, disgrace comes from without. Something with which others disgrace our face. Therefore he says, "let us lie down in our shame." We are as though lying with the shame. What is "lying with the shame"? Like one who lies with the wife of his bosom, connected to something belonging to him, his wife who is like his own body. So too we lie with the shame, as though connected to the shame. This is "let us lie down in our shame." In contrast, "let our disgrace cover us," since disgrace is something that comes from without, it covers from above. It is not something connected, I am not as though connected to it lying with it, but rather it is something that comes from above, it covers me from above. And therefore it is called "let our disgrace cover us." So too the Metzudat David says that this is the matter, that the disgrace covers us as if from above, for "let us lie down in our shame" is the lower bedding, and "let our disgrace cover us" is the upper covering. And according to the Malbim this is more understandable, since it is considered something external to me, not something with which I lie as attached and part of me, but rather something external to me, and this is the disgrace that comes from without.