After a devastating period of plague and famine, the dawn of redemption arrives, bringing an unprecedented abundance that completely eclipses whatever existed before [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Food will no longer be consumed merely for basic survival, as it was during the harsh years of starvation, but will provide a state of absolute satisfaction [מצודת דוד].
Commentators offer two distinct ways to understand this profound satisfaction. One perspective views it as a massive quantitative miracle, where a single year of harvest will yield enough to replace the losses of four or more years of famine [רד"ק]. Another approach suggests a qualitative, supernatural change within the human body itself. In this reality, a person might eat only a tiny portion of food and yet feel entirely full [מלבי"ם, חומת אנך].
Experiencing this wondrous reality will naturally lead the people to offer praise and thanks. Specifically, they will praise the name of God, which represents making His active care and greatness known throughout the world, rather than just focusing on His hidden essence [מלבי"ם]. They will express gratitude for the sheer wonder of His actions [מצודת ציון] and for the extraordinary, miraculous favor He has shown them [חומת אנך]. This sequence of eating before praising also reflects a practical law regarding public fasts. If God answers the people's prayers and sends rain in the middle of a fast day, they are instructed to break their fast and eat first, offering their formal praise only afterward. This is because genuine praise flows most naturally from a state of physical satisfaction [מלבי"ם].
Ultimately, the people are promised that they will never face shame again. On a practical level, this means they will no longer be forced to wander into foreign lands in search of bread, sparing them the disgrace of relying on other nations [מצודת דוד, רד"ק]. Conceptually, this promise of dignity reverses the earlier devastation when the fields and crops themselves dried up and withered [אבן עזרא]. On a much deeper level, there is a profound difference between external disgrace caused by others and the internal shame a person feels within. The promise guarantees that the Israelites will no longer carry the internal burden of shame for their past mistakes. Because they will have returned to God out of pure love, their former wrongs will be completely transformed into merits [מלבי"ם].