Cloud and stopped ears

Meaning

Stopping the ears 'as with a cloud' is the First Response's image for refusing petitions directed only toward perishable gold. Its plural speakers claim to recognise such petitioners through divine revelation and their writings. They let the callers cry in vain, and interpret the ensuing abuse as something God will avenge. The cloud is therefore a figure of deliberate non-reception, not a reported weather event or a material vapour in an experiment. The limiting word 'solely' in the English matters: the criticism targets a disposition fixed on transient riches, rather than establishing that every mention of gold is disqualifying.