Isaiah 29:1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelled! add you year to year; let them kill sacrifices. The simplest meaning of "Ariel" is "lion of God"; but it also signifies "hearth of God" when derived from another root. In the former sense it comes to mean "a hero," as in 2 Samuel 23:20; Isaiah 33:7; and in the latter it occurs in Ezekiel 43:15, 16 for the brazen hearth of the great altar of burnt offerings, thence commonly called "the brazen," though the rest of it was of stone. There is no doubt that Jerusalem is pointed out by this enigmatical name; and the immediate context, as well as the expression in Isaiah 31:9 — "Jehovah, whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem" — makes it probable that Isaiah intended to involve both meanings in the word, as though he had said, "Woe to the city of heroes, woe to the city of sacrifices: it shall now be put to the test what God and what man think as to both." (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.) Parallel Verses KJV: Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.WEB: Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around; |