SHEKEL (shal). See WEIGHTS AND MEAS URES.
to have been a concentrated glowing brightness. a preternatural splendor, an effulgent something, was appropriately expressed by the term 'Glory ;' but whether in philosophical strictness it was material or immaterial, it is probably im possible to determine. A luminous object of this description seems intrinsically the most appro priate symbol of that Being of whom, perhaps in allusion to this very mode of manifestation, it is said, that 'he is light,' and that 'he dwelleth in light unapproachable, and full of glory.' The presence of such a sensible representation of Je hovah seems to be be absolutely necessary in order to harmonize what is frequently said of 'seeing God' with the truth of his nature as an incor poreal and essentially invisible spirit. While we are told in one place that 'no man hath seen God at any time,' we are elsewhere informed that Moses and Aaron, and the seventy elders, 'saw the God of Israel,' when called up to the summit of the Holy Mount. So also Isaiah says of him self (Is. vi 5) that 'in the year that king Uz ziah died he saw the Lord sitting upon his throne,' and that, in consequence, he cried out, 'I am un done; for mine eyes have seen the Lord of hosts.' In these eases it is obvious that the object seen was not God in his essence, but some external, vis ible symbol, which, because it stood for God, is called by his name.
Of all the divine appearances granted in the earlier ages of the world, the most signal and illustrious was undoubtedly that which was vouch safed in the pillar of cloud that guided the march of the children of Israel through the wilderness on their way to Canaan.
A correct view of this subject clothes it at once with a sanctity and grandeur which seldom appear from the naked letter of the narrative. There can be little doubt that the columnar cloud was the seat of the shekiluzh. We have already seen that the term shckinizing is applied to the abiding of the cloud on the summit of the moun tain (Exod. xxiv :16). Within the towering aerial mass we suppose was enfolded the inner effulgent brightness to which the appellation 'Glory of the Lord,' more properly belonged, and which was only occasionally disclosed. In sev eral instances in which God would indicate his anger to his people it is said that they looked to the cloud and beheld the 'Glory of the Lord' (Num. xiv :to; xv :to, 42). So when he would inspire a trembling awe of his Majesty at the giving of the Law, it is said, the 'Glory of the Lord appeared as a devouring fire' on the summit of the Mount.
Nor must the fact be forgotten in this connec tion that when Nadab and Abihn, the two sons of Aaron, offended by strange fire in their offerings. a fatal flash from the cloudy pillar instantaneously extinguished their lives. The evidence would seem then to be conclusive, that this wondrous pillar-cloud was the seat or throne of the she kinah, the visible representative of Jehovah, dwell ing in the midst of his people.
See Lowman, On the Shekinah: Taylor's Let ters of Ben Mordecai; Skinner's Dissertation on the Shekinah; \Vatt's Glory of Christ: Upham, On the Logos; Bush's Notes on Exodus; Teni son, On Idolatry: Fleming's Christo/ogy.
G. B.