Here's what I found: It would appear that we are ALL correct.
"THE KAVOD OF THE LORD
The Godhead and its appearance are associated with the term kavod, a term underlying the imagery of the Divine Presence in the Bible and paralleling the term Shekhinah in rabbinic literature. The Tabernacle is said to be sanctified by the "Kavod of the Lord" (Ex. 29:43) and indeed when God enters the Tabernacle after its inauguration the Tabernacle is said to be filled with the kavod (Ex. 40:34–35). The dedication of the Jerusalem Temple is described in similar terms in I Kings 8:11. In both cases the kavod enters the holy abode, accompanied by the cloud, up to the Holy of Holies during which time Moses, on the one hand, and the Jerusalem priests, on the other, could not come in to minister. Only after the cloud departed and the kavod arrived at its place between the cherubim could Moses or the Jerusalem priests reenter the holy House.
The cloud serves as an envelope which screens the Deity from mortal view. Only Moses, who converses with God face to face, may enter into the cloud (Ex. 24:18). To the Israelites, however, God manifests Himself only when covered by a cloud. Unlike Moses they see only flames flashing forth from the cloud (Ex. 24:17). Only once does God manifest Himself to Israel without His screen of cloud – on the day of the inauguration of the Tabernacle (Lev. 9:23), an event whose importance parallels the Sinaitic revelation. The cloud departs from the Deity only when He assumes another mode of concealment, namely the Tent of Meeting or the Sanctuary. When the kavod enters the Tabernacle, the cloud remains outside and covers the tent. When the Tabernacle is dismantled, the kavod leaves the tent which is enveloped once again by the cloud which awaits Him and rises upward (Num. 9:15ff.).
THE NATURE OF THE KAVOD
Knowledge of the underlying imagery of the concept of kavod, which is embedded in Priestly tradition, is provided by Ezekiel whose ideology and divine imagery is grounded on Priestly doctrine. In Ezekiel 1, the kavod is described as an envelope of fire and brightness conveyed on a chariot. From afar, the apparition is like a blazing fire upon a great cloud swept by a storm wind (1:4). It is this radiance and brightness of the kavod which made Moses' face radiant after he spoke with God (Ex. 34:29–35).
This characteristic feature of God, i.e., His being surrounded by an aureole or nimbus, is salient in the description of gods in Mesopotamia. The terms denoting the halo of the gods in Mesopotamia, pulhu-melammu, actually correspond to the Hebrew kavod-yirʾah and indeed refer to the flame and fire enveloping the Godhead. Like the Tabernacle and Temple in Israel, the Mesopotamian shrines and chapels were clad with the melammu, i.e., the divine splendor. The kavod is said to cover (cf. Hab. 3:3, ksh) and fill (Num. 14:21; Isa. 6:3, mlʾ) heaven and earth. The same idea occurs in connection with the pulhu-melammu in Akkadian expressed by the verbs katāmu and malû which are identical with the Hebrew ksh and mlʾ. The Akkadian pulhu-melammu is often employed in connection with overwhelming the enemy and terrifying him. This is in fact expressed in Isaiah 2 where on the "day of the Lord" God appears in "terror" and "majestic glory" (paḥad YHWH ve-hadar geʾono) a pair of concepts which can now be better understood on the basis of the Mesopotamian parallels.
The correspondence of pulhu-melammu to kavod-yirʾah may be discerned in some other biblical descriptions. The Mesopotamian god imparts his melammu to the king who is the god's representative and thus endows him with divine power. When the god rejects the king and deprives him of the melammu, the king no longer continues to reign by divine grace. Reflections of these beliefs may also be discerned in biblical literature. Though the Priestly document describes only Moses as being endowed with the divine radiance, biblical wisdom and psalmodic literature describe man in general, in contexts in which he is likened to a king, as being endowed with the divine kavod and splendor: "Thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with kavod and splendor" (Ps. 8:6). If man becomes unworthy then God deprives him of the divine kavod: "He has stripped me of my kavod and taken the crown from my head" (Job 19:9).
Ezekiel in his divine chariot vision describes the divine animals as endowed with terror (yirʾah; 1:18). The passage appears to employ the term in the sense of a dazzling and aweinspiring covering or dress of heavenly and divine beings as does its Akkadian counterpart in Babylonian and Assyrian literature (see Oppenheim, in bibl.). The obscure expression in the Song of the Sea noraʾ tehillot (Ex. 15:11a) is also best rendered in this sense. The word tehillot in this verse does not mean "praises" but "radiance" (cf. Job 29:3; 31:26, 41:10) as it does in Habakkuk 3:3: "His splendor covered the heavens and the earth was full of his tehillah." The tehillah of God fills the universe as does His kavod (cf. Num. 14:21; Isa. 6:3). The terms yirʾah and kavod, then, are used synonymously in biblical literature as are their Akkadian counterparts pulhu and melammu in Babylonian literature."
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"THE KAVOD OF THE LORD
The Godhead and its appearance are associated with the term kavod, a term underlying the imagery of the Divine Presence in the Bible and paralleling the term Shekhinah in rabbinic literature. The Tabernacle is said to be sanctified by the "Kavod of the Lord" (Ex. 29:43) and indeed when God enters the Tabernacle after its inauguration the Tabernacle is said to be filled with the kavod (Ex. 40:34–35). The dedication of the Jerusalem Temple is described in similar terms in I Kings 8:11. In both cases the kavod enters the holy abode, accompanied by the cloud, up to the Holy of Holies during which time Moses, on the one hand, and the Jerusalem priests, on the other, could not come in to minister. Only after the cloud departed and the kavod arrived at its place between the cherubim could Moses or the Jerusalem priests reenter the holy House.
The cloud serves as an envelope which screens the Deity from mortal view. Only Moses, who converses with God face to face, may enter into the cloud (Ex. 24:18). To the Israelites, however, God manifests Himself only when covered by a cloud. Unlike Moses they see only flames flashing forth from the cloud (Ex. 24:17). Only once does God manifest Himself to Israel without His screen of cloud – on the day of the inauguration of the Tabernacle (Lev. 9:23), an event whose importance parallels the Sinaitic revelation. The cloud departs from the Deity only when He assumes another mode of concealment, namely the Tent of Meeting or the Sanctuary. When the kavod enters the Tabernacle, the cloud remains outside and covers the tent. When the Tabernacle is dismantled, the kavod leaves the tent which is enveloped once again by the cloud which awaits Him and rises upward (Num. 9:15ff.).
THE NATURE OF THE KAVOD
Knowledge of the underlying imagery of the concept of kavod, which is embedded in Priestly tradition, is provided by Ezekiel whose ideology and divine imagery is grounded on Priestly doctrine. In Ezekiel 1, the kavod is described as an envelope of fire and brightness conveyed on a chariot. From afar, the apparition is like a blazing fire upon a great cloud swept by a storm wind (1:4). It is this radiance and brightness of the kavod which made Moses' face radiant after he spoke with God (Ex. 34:29–35).
This characteristic feature of God, i.e., His being surrounded by an aureole or nimbus, is salient in the description of gods in Mesopotamia. The terms denoting the halo of the gods in Mesopotamia, pulhu-melammu, actually correspond to the Hebrew kavod-yirʾah and indeed refer to the flame and fire enveloping the Godhead. Like the Tabernacle and Temple in Israel, the Mesopotamian shrines and chapels were clad with the melammu, i.e., the divine splendor. The kavod is said to cover (cf. Hab. 3:3, ksh) and fill (Num. 14:21; Isa. 6:3, mlʾ) heaven and earth. The same idea occurs in connection with the pulhu-melammu in Akkadian expressed by the verbs katāmu and malû which are identical with the Hebrew ksh and mlʾ. The Akkadian pulhu-melammu is often employed in connection with overwhelming the enemy and terrifying him. This is in fact expressed in Isaiah 2 where on the "day of the Lord" God appears in "terror" and "majestic glory" (paḥad YHWH ve-hadar geʾono) a pair of concepts which can now be better understood on the basis of the Mesopotamian parallels.
The correspondence of pulhu-melammu to kavod-yirʾah may be discerned in some other biblical descriptions. The Mesopotamian god imparts his melammu to the king who is the god's representative and thus endows him with divine power. When the god rejects the king and deprives him of the melammu, the king no longer continues to reign by divine grace. Reflections of these beliefs may also be discerned in biblical literature. Though the Priestly document describes only Moses as being endowed with the divine radiance, biblical wisdom and psalmodic literature describe man in general, in contexts in which he is likened to a king, as being endowed with the divine kavod and splendor: "Thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with kavod and splendor" (Ps. 8:6). If man becomes unworthy then God deprives him of the divine kavod: "He has stripped me of my kavod and taken the crown from my head" (Job 19:9).
Ezekiel in his divine chariot vision describes the divine animals as endowed with terror (yirʾah; 1:18). The passage appears to employ the term in the sense of a dazzling and aweinspiring covering or dress of heavenly and divine beings as does its Akkadian counterpart in Babylonian and Assyrian literature (see Oppenheim, in bibl.). The obscure expression in the Song of the Sea noraʾ tehillot (Ex. 15:11a) is also best rendered in this sense. The word tehillot in this verse does not mean "praises" but "radiance" (cf. Job 29:3; 31:26, 41:10) as it does in Habakkuk 3:3: "His splendor covered the heavens and the earth was full of his tehillah." The tehillah of God fills the universe as does His kavod (cf. Num. 14:21; Isa. 6:3). The terms yirʾah and kavod, then, are used synonymously in biblical literature as are their Akkadian counterparts pulhu and melammu in Babylonian literature."
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