A cloud (as covering the sky), i.e. the nimbus or thunder-cloud
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H6051, ʿānān, is a Hebrew noun for a cloud, cloud mass, or in some poetic settings a mist that appears and vanishes. Scripture uses ordinary cloud imagery for weather, transience, concealment, invasion, and judgment.
Reader summary
Full entry for עָנָן (H6051) · Open the biblical lexicon
H6051, ʿānān, is a Hebrew noun for a cloud, cloud mass, or in some poetic settings a mist that appears and vanishes. Scripture uses ordinary cloud imagery for weather, transience, concealment, invasion, and judgment.
The BSB source-word alignment has 87 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include The cloud (18), of cloud (11), cloud (4), of clouds (4), with a cloud (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 9:13. Its strongest book concentrations include Exodus (20), Numbers (20), Ezekiel (11), Job (6).
H6051, ʿānān, is a Hebrew noun for a cloud, cloud mass, or in some poetic settings a mist that appears and vanishes. Scripture uses ordinary cloud imagery for weather, transience, concealment, invasion, and judgment. It also places a cloud within particular acts of God's covenant presence, guidance, glory, and self-disclosure. The noun itself does not make every cloud a divine sign.
Narrative and poetic context distinguish an ordinary feature of creation, a comparison, and the cloud through which the Lord chooses to act. Genesis 9 places the rainbow in the clouds as God's covenant sign with the earth and every living creature after the flood. The cloud provides the setting for the sign, while God's promise interprets it. Exodus then gives H6051 a concentrated redemptive role.
The Lord goes before Israel in a pillar of cloud, leads them through the wilderness, descends at Sinai, proclaims His name to Moses, and fills the completed tabernacle with glory. These events testify to God's initiative and faithfulness; they are not a method for reading personal directions from cloud shapes. The Sinai cloud joins nearness to holy restraint.
Thunder, lightning, thick cloud, and trumpet blast accompany the people's meeting with God. In Exodus 34 the cloud does not leave God's character hidden, because the Lord proclaims His name as compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness. The image can speak of concealment and revelation together, but the text, not imaginative symbolism, supplies what is revealed.
Psalm 97 surrounds the reigning Lord with clouds and darkness while naming righteousness and justice as the foundation of His throne. Majesty cannot be used to make divine rule morally obscure or human authority unanswerable. Isaiah 44 uses the cloud differently, comparing the disappearance of a cloud or mist to transgressions blotted out as the Lord calls Jacob to return because He has redeemed him.
The comparison concerns removal, not a claim that sin is natural weather or morally weightless. Other prophets use clouds for armies, dark days, and judgment. Such images must remain within their announced historical or eschatological setting. A storm, hurricane, wildfire cloud, or unusual sky today must not be labeled God's verdict on victims without revealed warrant.
Scientific explanation of weather does not compete with belief in the Creator, and pastoral care should prioritize safety, truthful information, relief, and lament. H6051 therefore teaches receptive limits. God may use cloud to guide, cover, reveal, warn, or illustrate, yet readers receive those meanings from Scripture rather than private omens. The cloud points beyond itself to the Lord who keeps covenant, travels with His people, reveals His name, grounds His throne in justice, and redeems.
H6051 names clouds and mist in ordinary, poetic, judicial, and covenant settings. Exodus gives the cloud a major role in guidance, Sinai revelation, and tabernacle glory, while other passages use clouds for covenant signs, transience, judgment, and the removal of sin.
I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
God places the rainbow in the clouds as the covenant sign between Himself, the earth, and every living creature.
And the Lord went before them in a pillar of cloud to guide their way by day, and in a pillar of fire to give them light by night, so that they could travel by day or night.
The Lord goes before Israel in a pillar of cloud by day to guide their wilderness journey.
On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning. A thick cloud was upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the ram’s horn went out, so that all the people in the camp trembled.
A thick cloud, thunder, lightning, and trumpet blast accompany Israel's prepared meeting with God at Sinai.
And the Lord descended in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed His name, the Lord.
The Lord descends in a cloud, stands with Moses, and proclaims His covenant name and character.
Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
The cloud covers the completed Tent of Meeting as the glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle.
Clouds and darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are His throne’s foundation.
Clouds and darkness surround the reigning Lord while righteousness and justice remain His throne's foundation.
I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
The Lord compares blotted-out transgressions to a vanished cloud and calls redeemed Israel to return to Him.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Cloud as divine presence and concealment—obscuring yet revealing God's glory and judgment simultaneously
Cloud as divine presence and concealment—obscuring yet revealing God's glory and judgment simultaneously
a cloud (as covering the sky), i.e. the nimbus or thunder-cloud BDB: cloud-mass Usage: cloud(-y).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 87 lexical occurrence verses.
עָנָן is built from this root:
The cloud imagery signals the Lord’s majestic approach in judgment.Hosea 6:4-6
Imagery of transience describing shallow repentance.Isaiah 19:1-4
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Exodus 34 gives H6051 a center in revealed character. The Lord descends in a cloud, but the narrative does not invite Moses to decode the cloud. God proclaims His own name and declares Himself compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and rich in loving devotion and faithfulness. The same book shows the cloud guiding Israel, marking Sinai's holiness, and filling the tabernacle with glory.
Presence is real, yet it remains God's initiative rather than a signal people can manufacture or control. Genesis 9 and Isaiah 44 broaden the teaching. God places His covenant sign in the clouds, and He compares forgiven transgressions to a cloud swept away. Psalm 97 joins clouds and darkness to a throne founded on righteousness and justice. Across these uses, the cloud never licenses vague spirituality detached from God's word and character.
Faithful application receives wonder, guidance, forgiveness, and holy restraint from the passage. It refuses to blame storm victims, advertise cloud-shaped prophecies, or turn meteorological events into private commands. The Creator's ordinary weather can be studied carefully, and His scriptural acts can be confessed faithfully, without confusing the two.
Exod.34.5
H6051 is a masculine common noun occurring in singular, plural, absolute, and construct forms. English may render it cloud, clouds, or mist according to context. The lexical form names the phenomenon; divine presence or symbolic force comes from the passage.
New Testament scenes use cloud language in the transfiguration, ascension, and coming of the Son of Man, drawing on Israel's scriptural patterns of glory and divine action. Those canonical links must be traced by each passage rather than treating H6051 as the lexical owner of every later cloud image.