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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

ARIEL (Place)

Poetic designation for Jerusalem, used by the prophet Isaiah in a “woe” oracle warning people to turn from their wrongdoing (Is 29:1-2, 7). Jerusalem, location of the altar of burnt offering, was called Ariel (“hearth of God”) by synecdoche, a poetic device in which a whole thing is referred to by naming one part. In a dramatic play on words Isaiah pronounced God’s judgment: Jerusalem, city of the hearth of God, would become an ariel, a pagan altar hearth, when destroyed by her enemies.