the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Dictionaries
Cloud
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words
or ‛Ânân (עָנָן, Strong's #6051), “cloud; fog; storm cloud; smoke.” Cognates of this word appear in Aramaic and Arabic. Its 87 appearances are scattered throughout the biblical material.The word commonly means “cloud mass.” ‛Ânân is used especially of the “cloud mass” that evidenced the special presence of God: “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way …”(Exod. 13:21). In Exod. 34:5, this presence is represented by ‛ânân only: “And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him [Moses] there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.”
When the ark of the covenant was brought into the holy place, “The cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord” (1 Kings 8:10-11). Thus the “cloud” evidenced the presence of God’s glory. So the psalmist wrote that God was surrounded by “clouds and darkness” (Ps. 97:2); God appears as the controller and sovereign of nature. This description is somewhat parallel to the descriptions of Baal, the lord of the storm and god of nature set forth in Ugaritic mythology. The “cloud” is a sign and figure of “divine protection” (Isa. 4:5) and serves as a barrier hiding the fullness of divine holiness and glory, as well as barring sinful man’s approach to God (Lam. 3:44). Man’s relationship to God, therefore, is God-initiated and God-sustained, not humanly initiated or humanly sustained.
In its first biblical occurrence, ‛ânân is used in conjunction with God’s sign that He would never again destroy the earth by a flood: “I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth” (Gen. 9:13). Elsewhere, the transitory quality of a cloud is used to symbolize the loyalty (Hos. 6:4) and existence of Israel (13:3). In Isa. 44:22, God says that after proper punishment He will wipe out, “as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins.…”
‛Ânân can mean “storm cloud” and is used to symbolize “an invading force”: “Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee” (Ezek. 38:9; cf. Jer. 4:13). In Job 26:8, the storm cloud is said to be God’s: “He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them.” In several passages, the thick storm cloud and the darkness accompanying it are symbols of “gloom” (Ezek. 30:18) and/or “divine judgment” (Ezek. 30:3).
‛Ânân can represent the “smoke” arising from burning incense: “And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not …” (Lev. 16:13). This “cloud of smoke” may represent the covering between God’s presence (above the mercy seat) and sinful man. If so, it probably also symbolizes the “divine glory.” On the other hand, many scholars feel it represents the human prayers offered up to God.
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Cloud'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/vot/c/cloud.html. 1940.
