Ariel

Ariel (meaning lion of God or altar hearth) serves three distinct uses in the Old Testament. (1.) A person: one of the chief men Ezra dispatched to Casiphia to recruit Levites for the return from exile (Ezra 8:16). (2.) A poetic name for Jerusalem, used by Isaiah in chapters 29:1–7 to describe the city as a place both embattled and ultimately defended by God—victorious under God. (3.) The Hebrew term for the altar hearth of the temple (Ezekiel 43:15–16), understood as the source of Israel's lion-like spiritual strength.