The Hebrew so rendered means "a covering," because clouds cover the sky. The word is used as a symbol of the Divine presence, as indicating the splendour of that glory which it conceals (Exo 16:10; Exo 33:9; Num 11:25; Num 12:5; Job 22:14; Psa 18:11).

A bright cloud is the symbolical seat of the Divine presence (Exo 29:42, Exo 29:43; Kg1 8:10; Ch2 5:14; Eze 43:4), and was called the Shechinah (q.v.). Jehovah came down upon Sinai in a cloud (Exo 19:9); and the cloud filled the court around the tabernacle in the wilderness so that Moses could not enter it (Exo 40:34, Exo 40:35). At the dedication of the temple also the cloud "filled the house of the Lord" (Kg1 8:10).

In like manner, when Christ comes the second time he is described as coming "in the clouds" (Matt 17:5; Matt 24:30; Act 1:9, Act 1:11).

Praise ye the Lord of Hosts for He, riding upon the clouds, hath come down to this world out of the heaven of the invisible realm, so that East and West were lit by the glory of the Sun of Truth, and the call of the Kingdom was raised, and the heralds of the realm above, with melodies of the Concourse on high, sang out the glad tidings of the Coming. Then the whole world of being did quiver for joy, and still the people, even as the Messiah saith, slept on: for the day of the Manifestation, when the Lord of Hosts descended, found them wrapped in the slumber of unknowing. As He saith in the Gospel, My coming is even as when the thief is in the house, and the goodman of the house watcheth not.