Ariel

Ariel ("lion of God" or "altar-hearth") is the symbolic name Isaiah uses for Jerusalem in his oracle of Isaiah 29:1-8. The double meaning is potent: Ariel is the great altar where sacrifices are continually burned, and Ariel is the city God will himself besiege until it groans like the altar fire it has become — "I will distress Ariel, and there shall be lamentation and grieving; she shall be to me like an Ariel." But the same oracle promises a sudden reversal: the multitude of nations that fight against Ariel will vanish "like a dream, a vision of the night," and God himself will deliver his city. The same name appears in Ezra 8:16 as a personal name and in 2 Samuel 23:20 to describe two "lion-like heroes" of Moab whom Benaiah struck down. Tradition identifies Ariel exclusively with Jerusalem in its prophetic usage.