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. Proverbs 16:15; Isaiah 18:4; Isaiah 25:5; Judges 1:12. Compare Proverbs 25:14.
The cloud is 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. A bright cloud, at times, visited and rested on the Mercy-Seat, Exodus 29:42-43; 1 Kings 8:10-11; 2 Chronicles 5:14; Ezekiel 43:4, and was, by later writers, named Shechinah.
More than 4,500 subjects and proper names are defined and analyzed with corresponding Scripture references. Bible students have used "Smith's Bible Dictionary" since its introduction in the 1880s, making it a trustworthy classic.Wikipedia
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