Woe to you, O Ariel, the city of Ariel where David camped! Year upon year let your festivals recur.
1. This appears to be another discourse, in which Isaiah threatens the city of Jerusalem. He calls it “Altar,” “Il l’appelle Ariel, c’est à dire, autel de Dieu;” — “He calls it Ariel, that is, Altar of God.” FT509 “Some, with the Chaldee, suppose it to be taken from the hearth of the great altar of burnt-offerings, which Ezekiel plainly calls by the same name...
That it is Jerusalem which is here called Ariel is agreed, for that was the city where David dwelt; that part of it which was called Zion was in a particular manner the city of David, in which both the temple and the palace were. But why it is so called is very uncertain: probably the name and the reason were then well known.
Commenting on Isaiah 29:1-8
Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt,.... Many Jewish writers by "Ariel" understand the altar of burnt offerings; and so the Targum, "woe, altar, altar, which was built in the city where David dwelt;'' and so it is called in Eze 43:15 it signifies "the lion of God"; and the reason why it is so called, the Jews say (i), is, because...