הַרְאֵל

From the study of Ezekiel 43:15

Range of meaning

In Ezekiel 43:15–16 the word means the altar's fire-hearth: the top tier where the fire burned and offerings were consumed. Outside Ezekiel, ari'el appears as a poetic name for Jerusalem (Isaiah 29:1–2, 7: 'Woe to Ariel… she shall be to me like an ariel', meaning a city that becomes like a blazing altar hearth). It is also used of two Moabite figures killed by Benaiah (2 Samuel 23:20; 1 Chronicles 11:22), where it may mean 'champions' or may name some cultic object or person. The word's origin is uncertain. Proposals include: (1) a link to the Akkadian word arallu, meaning the underworld or a 'mountain of the gods'; (2) a form built on a root meaning 'to burn', giving 'hearth'; (3) a popular reading as 'lion of God' (ari + El).

Against the English

The KJV and YLT simply say 'altar', which loses the specific point that this is the top, fire-bearing tier. BSB, NIV, ESV and NASB say 'altar hearth', which is accurate. WEB's 'upper altar' gets the position right but drops the idea of fire. No English version can show that the spelling changes within the verse, or that the first spelling sounds like 'mountain of God'.

How it drifted

'Altar' in later English usage calls up a church table or the front of a sanctuary. This word means something narrower and hotter: the fire-pit surface of a large stepped structure built for burning sacrifices.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Mesha Stele (Moab, about 840 BC, line 12) mentions an 'ar'el of DWDH' that King Mesha dragged before his god Chemosh. Its meaning is debated (an altar hearth? a cult object? a figure?), but it shows the word was used in worship outside Israel too. Isaiah 29 plays on 'Ariel' as Jerusalem, the city of the altar-fire. W. F. Albright argued that harel reflects Akkadian arallu, 'mountain of God', and linked it with Babylonian temple-towers (ziggurats). Many scholars accept a mountain connotation for the spelling but are more cautious about the derivation. The Septuagint (ancient Greek translation) leaves the word untranslated as ariēl, and the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin) does the same in a Latinised form.