Isaiah addresses a city by a poetic name. “Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt!” he says, and the passage that follows is a warning of distress, heaviness and sorrow. Yet the same chapter promises that the crowd of nations fighting against Ariel and her stronghold will be “as a dream of a night vision.” Reading the verses, the city is understood to be Jerusalem, because David lived there. The message holds both fear and hope: the city will be shaken, and the enemy will vanish like a dream. If you want the whole picture, read Isaiah 29 from the first verse to the end.
3 verses
Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.
Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.
And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
The lion of God. (1.) One of the chief men sent by Ezra to procure Levites for the sanctuary (Ezra 8:16).
(2.) A symbolic name for Jerusalem (Isa. 29:1, 2, 7) as “victorious under God,” and in Ezek. 43:15, 16, for the altar (marg., Heb. ‘ariel) of burnt offerings, the secret of Israel’s lion-like strength.
William Smith, 1884
(lion of God).
(1.) One of the "chief men" who under Ezra directed the caravan which he led back from Babylon to Jerusalem. (Ezra 8:16) (B.C. 459.) The word occurs also in reference to two Moabites slain by Benaiah. (2 Samuel 23:20; 1 Chronicles 11:22) Many regard the word as an epithet, "lion-like;" but it seems better to look upon it as a proper name, and translate "two [sons] of Ariel."
(2.) A designation given by Isaiah to the city of Jerusalem. (Isaiah 29:1,2,7) We must understand by it either "lion of God," as the chief city, or "hearth of God," a synonym for the altar of burnt offering. On the whole it seems most probable that, as a name given to Jerusalem, Ariel means "lion of God," whilst the word used by Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 43:15,16) means "hearth of God."