Cloud

Clouds in Scripture move along two registers at once. They are weather, the natural columns of vapor that bring rain, dew, and hailstones. They are also the visible drapery of the divine presence: a pillar that goes before Israel in the wilderness, a covering that fills the tabernacle and Solomon's house, the canopy out of which the voice on the mountain speaks. The same word that names a passing morning cloud names the throne-vehicle on which the Son of Man comes.

Cloud as Image of What Quickly Passes

Prophetic speech reaches for the cloud when it wants to name something that looks impressive but does not last. Ephraim and Judah are told that their goodness is "as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goes early away" (Hos 6:4). The same image returns in Hosea 13:3, where Israel will be "as the morning cloud, and as the dew that passes early away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing-floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney." Jeremiah uses cloud-imagery in the opposite direction, for an enemy whose advance is sudden and overwhelming: "Look, he will come up as clouds, and his chariots [will be] as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles" (Jer 4:13). The figure cuts both ways. A morning cloud is what burns off; a storm cloud is what arrives without warning.

Ben Sira's hymn to the works of creation keeps the literal weather in view. The Most High has made a "treasure-house" for the storm, "and clouds fly forth as fowls" (Sir 43:14). "By his mighty power he makes the clouds strong, and the hailstones are broken small" (Sir 43:15). The same clouds that crush with hail also restore: "Healing for all things is the dropping from the clouds, the dew which speedily refreshed the parched ground" (Sir 43:22).

The Pillar of Cloud at the Exodus

The pillar of cloud first appears the night Israel leaves Egypt. "And [the Speech of] Yahweh went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, that they might go by day and by night: the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, did not depart from before the people" (Ex 13:21-22). At the Sea, the same pillar shifts position: "the pillar of cloud removed from before them, and stood behind them" (Ex 14:19), and from inside it Yahweh "looked forth on the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and discomfited the host of the Egyptians" (Ex 14:24). The pillar is a single column with two faces — cloud by day, fire by night — and the cloud-face is the one Israel sees when it sees Yahweh going before them.

Once the camp is on the move, the cloud becomes the camp's clock. "Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, then after that the sons of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud stayed, there the sons of Israel encamped" (Num 9:17). The cadence is laid out at length in Numbers 9:15-23: cloud and fire alternate over the tent of the testimony, "and the cloud covered it and by night [had] the appearance of fire" (Num 9:16); whether the cloud rested "two days, or a month, or a year," Israel did not move until it lifted (Num 9:22). On "the twentieth day of the month, that the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the testimony" (Num 10:11), and the journey from Sinai to Paran began. "And the cloud of Yahweh was over them by day, when they set forward from the camp" (Num 10:34). When the tabernacle is finally finished, Exodus closes on the same image: "And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel went onward, throughout all their journeys: but if the cloud wasn't taken up, then they didn't journey until the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of Yahweh was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys" (Ex 40:36-38).

The wilderness retrospectives gather these scenes into one. Moses tells the second generation that Yahweh was the one "who went before you⁺ in the way, to seek you⁺ out a place to pitch your⁺ tents in, in fire by night, to show you⁺ by what way you⁺ should go, and in the cloud by day" (Deut 1:33). The Levites' confession in Nehemiah 9 doubles the line: "in a pillar of cloud you led them by day; and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light in the way in which they should go" (Neh 9:12), and again, "the pillar of cloud did not depart from over them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way in which they should go" (Neh 9:19). The Psalter adds its two lines: "In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire" (Ps 78:14); and, "He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light in the night" (Ps 105:39). Ben Sira's personified Wisdom places her own throne in the same column: "In the high places I fixed my abode, and my throne was in the pillar of cloud" (Sir 24:4). Looking ahead, Isaiah promises that the cloud-and-fire pattern will return over Zion: "Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory [will be spread] a covering" (Isa 4:5).

Cloud at Sinai

Before the law is given, the cloud arrives on the mountain. Yahweh tells Moses, "Look, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever" (Ex 19:9). On the third day "there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mount, and the voice of a trumpet exceedingly loud; and all the people who were in the camp trembled" (Ex 19:16). When Moses goes up, "Moses went up into the mount, and the cloud covered the mount" (Ex 24:15), "and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day [the Speech of Yahweh] called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud" (Ex 24:16). "And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights" (Ex 24:18). After the golden-calf breach is repaired, the same encounter recurs: "Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of [the Speech of] Yahweh" (Ex 34:5).

The cloud is what Moses crosses into in order to hear, and what the people see and do not cross into.

Cloud at the Tent of Meeting

When the camp is settled, the same cloud descends to the door of the tent. "When Moses entered into the Tent, the pillar of cloud descended, and stood at the door of the Tent: and [the Speech of Yahweh] spoke with Moses. And all the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent: and all the people rose up and worshiped, every man at his tent door" (Ex 33:9-10). The pattern recurs at moments when the divine word is needed against challenge or rebellion. When Aaron and Miriam speak against Moses, "Yahweh came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forth" (Num 12:5); when the cloud lifts, Miriam is found leprous (Num 12:10). Yahweh comes down "in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him, and put it on the seventy elders" (Num 11:25). At the rebellion of Korah's faction, "the cloud covered it, and the glory of Yahweh appeared" (Num 16:42). At Moses' commissioning of Joshua at the end of the wilderness, "Yahweh appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud: and the pillar of cloud stood over the door of the Tent" (Deut 31:15).

The cloud has a place inside the tent as well as over its door. "For [my Speech] will appear in the cloud on the mercy-seat" (Lev 16:2) — the warning to Aaron about entering the holy place at the wrong time. The cloud is what makes the mercy-seat dangerous. The wilderness camp also sees the cloud over the tent in moments of crisis; in the manna episode, "they looked toward the wilderness, and saw that the glory of Yahweh appeared in the cloud" (Ex 16:10).

Cloud in Solomon's Temple and in Ezekiel's Vision

What had happened over the tent happens again over the house. At the dedication of the temple, "when the priests had come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of Yahweh, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh" (1 Kings 8:10-11). The cloud is the sign that the same presence which filled the tabernacle has now taken up the house Solomon built.

Ezekiel sees the same cloud, but sees it leaving. "Now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. And the glory of Yahweh mounted up from the cherub, [and stood] over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of Yahweh's glory" (Eze 10:3-4). The dedication and the departure use the same vocabulary; what changes is the direction.

Cloud in the New Testament

On the mountain of transfiguration the wilderness pattern returns. "And while he said these things, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my Son, the chosen one: hear⁺ him" (Lu 9:34-35). The disciples enter the cloud the way Moses entered it on Sinai, and they hear the voice the way Israel heard it at the door of the Tent.

The same cloud is the vehicle of the return. "And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory" (Lu 21:27). "Look, he comes with the clouds; and every eye will see him, and those who pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Even so, Amen" (Re 1:7). And in John's vision: "And I looked, and saw a white cloud; and on the cloud [I saw] one sitting like a son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle" (Re 14:14). What goes before Israel in the wilderness, what fills the tabernacle and the temple, what the disciples enter on the mountain, is what the eye finally sees coming.