Library Home>Concise Bible Dictionary>Concise Bible Dictionary: A>Ariel (#79998)

Ariel

From: Concise Bible Dictionary: A

By: George A. Morrish

Narrator: Chris Genthree

• 1 min. read • grade level: 11

Listen to This Article

1. Symbolical name of Jerusalem, signifying “Lion of God,” probably in reference to the lion being the emblem of Judah (Isa. 29:1-2, 7¹Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices. ²Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel. (Isaiah 29:1‑2)
⁷And 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. (Isaiah 29:7)). In the margin of Ezekiel 43:15,¹⁵So the altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar and upward shall be four horns. (Ezekiel 43:15) the altar is called the “lion of God”; but the word is slightly different and is translated by some the “hearth of God,” the place for offering all sacrifices to God.

2. One whom Ezra sent to Iddo at Casiphia (Ezra 8:16¹⁶Then sent I for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan, and for Jarib, and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for Zechariah, and for Meshullam, chief men; also for Joiarib, and for Elnathan, men of understanding. (Ezra 8:16)).

3. In 2 Samuel 23:20²⁰And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man, of Kabzeel, who had done many acts, he slew two lionlike men of Moab: he went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow: (2 Samuel 23:20) and 1 Chronicles 11:22,²²Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many acts; he slew two lionlike men of Moab: also he went down and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy day. (1 Chronicles 11:22) we read that Benaiah slew two “lion-like men,” which some prefer to translate “two [sons] of Ariel.” The Hebrew is literally “two lions of God.”

Click here to show subject links in the text for more information.

Previous Article

Concise Bible Dictionary: A

• Areli, Arelites

• Areopagus, or Mars Hill

• Ariel

• Aristarchus

• Aristobulus

• Ark of Bulrushes

• Ark of Noah