23 Is 29.1-2 Jerusalem called “Ariel”

Isaiah 29:1–2 (ESV)

1Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round.

2Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel.

The first three Ariels refer to the city, and the last Ariel refers to the altar of burnt offering. Verse 2 prophesies Jeruselem will be to YHWH like the altar of burnt offering, a place of dead bodies and sacrifices to God’s justice.

A. Clarke, “Ariel: That Jerusalem is here called by this name is very certain: but the reason of this name, and the meaning of it as applied to Jerusalem, is very obscure and doubtful. Some, with the Chaldee, suppose it to be taken from the hearth of the great altar of burnt-offerings, which Ezekiel plainly calls by the same name; and that Jerusalem is here considered as the seat of the fire of God, אור אל‎ ur el which should issue from thence to consume his enemies: compare chap. 31:9. Some, according to the common derivation of the word, ארי אל‎ ari el, the lion of God. or the strong lion, suppose it to signify the strength of the place, by which it was enabled to resist and overcome all its enemies. Τινες δε φασι την πολιν οὑτως ειρησθαι· επει, δια Θεου, λεοντος δικην εσπαραττε τους ανταιροντας. Procop. in loc. There are other explanations of this name given: but none that seems to be perfectly satisfactory.—Lowth.

From Ezekiel 43:15, we learn that Ari-el was the name of the altar of burnt-offerings, put here for the city itself in which that altar was. In the second verse it is said, I will distress Ari-el, and it shall be unto me as Ari-el. The first Ari-el here seems to mean Jerusalem, which should be distressed by the Assyrians: the second Ari-el seems to mean the altar of burnt-offerings. But why is it said, “Ari-el shall be unto me as Ari-el?” As the altar of burnt-offerings was surrounded daily by the victims which were offered; so the walls of Jerusalem shall be surrounded by the dead bodies of those who had rebelled against the Lord, and who should be victims to his justice. The translation of Bishop Lowth appears to embrace both meanings: “I will bring distress upon Ari-el; and it shall be to me as the hearth of the great altar.”” Adam Clarke, [The Holy Bible with a Commentary and Critical Notes, New Edition., vol. 4 (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife Corporation, 2014), 128.]