Cloud
The shelter given, and refreshment of rain promised, by clouds give them their peculiar prominence in Oriental imagery. When a cloud appears rain is ordinarily apprehended, and thus the "cloud without rain" becomes a proverb for the man of promise without performance. Pr 16:15; Isa 18:4; 25:5; Jude 1:12 comp. Prov 25:14
The cloud is a figure of transitoriness, Job 30:15; Ho 6:4 and of whatever intercepts divine favor or human supplication. La 2:1; 3:44 A bright cloud at times visited and rested on the mercy-seat. Ex 29:42,43; 1Ki 8:10,11; 2Ch 5:14; Eze 43:4 and was by later writers named Shechinah.
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