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Bible Encyclopedias
Cloud
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (properly עָנָן , anan, as covering the sky, νεφέλη ). The allusions to clouds in Scripture, as well as their use in symbolical language, must be understood with reference to the nature of the climate, where the sky scarcely exhibits the trace of a cloud from the beginning of May to the end of September, during which period clouds so rarely appear, and rains so seldom fall, as to be considered phenomena-as was the case with the harvest-rain which Samuel invoked (1 Samuel 12:17-18), and with the little cloud, not larger than a man's hand, the appearance of which in the west was immediately noticed as something remarkable not only in itself, but as a sure harbinger of rain (1 Kings 18:44). As in such climates clouds refreshingly veil the oppressive glories of the sun, clouds often symbolize the Divine presence, as indicating the splendor, insupportable to man, of that glory which they wholly or partially conceal (Exodus 16:10; Exodus 33:9; Numbers 11:25; Numbers 21:5; Job 22:14; Psalms 18:11-12; Isaiah 19:1).
The shelter given, and refreshment of rain promised by clouds, give them their peculiar prominence in Oriental imagery, and the individual cloud in that ordinarily cloudless region becomes well defined, and is dwelt upon like the individual tree in the bare landscape (Stanley, Syria and Palestine, p. 140). Similarly, when a cloud appears, rain is ordinarily apprehended, and thus the "cloud without rain" becomes a proverb for the man of promise without performance (Proverbs 16:15; Isaiah 18:4; Isaiah 25:5; Judges 1:12; comp. Proverbs 25:14). The cloud is, of course, a figure of transitoriness (Job 30:15; Hosea 6:4), and of whatever intercepts divine favor or human supplication (Lamentations 2:1; Lamentations 3:44). Being the least substantial of visible forms, undefined in shape, and unrestrained in position, it is the one among material things which most easily suggests spiritual being. Hence it is, so to speak, the recognized machinery by which supernatural appearances are introduced (Isaiah 19:1; Ezekiel 1:4; Revelation 1:7, et passim), or the veil between things visible and invisible; but, more especially, a mysterious or supernatural cloud is the symbolical seat of the Divine presence itself-the phenomenon of deity vouchsafed by Jehovah to the prophet, the priest, the king, or the people (Psalms 68:34; Psalms 89:6; Psalms 104:3; Nahum 1:3). Sometimes thick darkness, sometimes intense luminousness, often, apparently, and especially by night, an actual fire is attributed to this glory-cloud (Deuteronomy 4:11; Exodus 40:35; Exodus 33:22-23; 2 Samuel 22:12-13).
Such a bright cloud, at any rate at times, visited and rested on the Mercy-seat (Exodus 29:42-43; 1 Kings 8:14; 2 Chronicles 5:14; Ezekiel 43:4), and was named Shekinah (q.v.) by late writers (see Tholemann, De nube supra area, Lips. 1771-1752; Stiebritz, De area federis, Hal. 1753). Thus Jehovah appeared at Sinai in the midst of a cloud (Exodus 19:9; Exodus 34:5); and when Moses had built and consecrated the tabernacle, the cloud filled the court around it, so that Moses could not enter (Exodus 40:34-35). The same happened at the dedication of the Temple by Solomon (2 Chronicles 5:13; 1 Kings 8:10). So Christ, at his second advent, is described as descending upon clouds (Matthew 17:5; Matthew 24:30, etc.; Acts 1:9; Revelation 1:7; Revelation 14:14; Revelation 14:16).
To come in the clouds, or with the clouds of heaven, was among the Jews a known symbol of Divine power and majesty; and Grotius observes that a similar notion obtained among the heathen, who represented their deities covered with a cloud. (See the treatises on the symbolical nimbus or halo by Nicolaio [Jen. 1699], Reiske [Dissert. 2, No. 4].) Hence "clouds and darkness" appear to be put as representing the mysterious nature of the Divine operations in the government of the world (Psalms 97:2). Clouds are also the symbol of armies and multitudes of people (Jeremiah 4:13; Isaiah 60:8; Hebrews 12:1); a figure referring to the effects of a large and compact body of men, moving upon the surface of an extensive plain, like a cloud in the clear sky. A day of clouds is taken for a season of calamity (Ezekiel 30:3; Ezekiel 34:12). Peter compares false teachers to clouds carried about with a tempest (2 Peter 2:17). Solomon compares the infirmities of old age, which arise successively one after another, to "clouds returning after rain" (Ecclesiastes 12:2). The favor of a king is compared to "a cloud of the latter rain," refreshing and fertilizing the earth (Proverbs 16:15). The sudden disappearance of threatening clouds from the sky is employed by Isaiah as a figure for the blotting out of transgressions (44:22).
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Cloud'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/c/cloud.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
