CLOUD, PILLAR OF ()yi7 11nr, ply 1v:12, or 1pr ; Sept. crriAos ve0eXns, rvpbs), the emblem of the Divine Presence, which accompanied the Is raelites in their journcyings in the wilderness by day, and which at night assumed the appearance of a pillar of fire (Exod. xiii. 21 ; xiv. 24; Num. xiv. 14). When the cloud was not removed the host rested, when it was taken up they went on their journey (Exod. xl. 36, 37 ; Num. ix. 17). At times it was not only the symbol but the mode of the Divine presence (Num. xii. 5). The Lord talked with Moses from it (Exod. xxxiii. 9). Modern Germans explain it of a natural appearance, or of the holy fire carried before the host from off the altar. But it is clearly spoken of as miraculous, and grate fully remembered in after ages by pious Israelites (Ps. cv. 39 ; lxxviii. 14 ; Wisd. x. 17) as a token of God's special care of their fathers. It is said that caravans still carry beacons of fire before them in a somewhat similar way, and traces of a like custom are found in classical writers, e.g., Q.
Curtius 3. 3. 9 ; ordo agminis Persarum talis fait. Ignis quern ipsi sacrum et reternum vocant argen teis altaribus praeferebatur ; and 5. 2. 7, he says, that because all in Alexander's army could not hear the trumpet, Ergo perticam qtt undique conspici posset supra prmtorium statuit ex qua sig num eminebat pariter omnibus conspicuum. Ob servabatur ignis noctu fumes interdiu. See also an account of an appearance of fire by night in the expedition of Timoleon to Italy, Diod. Sic. 16. 66. Isaiah has a remarkable allusion to it (iv. 5), and St. Paul (1 Cor. x. 1, 2).—S. L.
CNIDUS otherwise GNIDUS, a town and peninsula of Doris in Caria, jutting out from the south-west part of Asia Minor, between the islands of Rhodes and Cos. It was celebrated for the worship of Venus (Strabo, xiv. p. 965 ; Plin. /list. Nat. xxxvi. 15; Hor. Carm. i. 3o). The Romans wrote to this city in favour of the Jews (I Maccab. xv. 23), and St. Paul passed it in his way to Rome (Acts xxvii. 7).