The text explains the use of daughter in a collective sense for people of a city, including men as well as women. Jeremiah refers to all inhabitants of Jerusalem as daughters. The Hebrew idiom personifies a capital city as a woman and its inhabitants collectively as her daughter. Jerusalem remained distinct as the city whose husband was the one true God. Her daughters, the collective inhabitants, depended on her for identity but also shaped her future by their actions. The terms sons, daughters, children, and harlots are used collectively without regard to specific gender when the sense of the term is those showing the characteristics of.

The daughters of Jerusalem act as a chorus in the book, commenting on and reacting to the words of the Shulamite. In contrast to the Shulamite, the daughters are compared to thorns. If the Shulamite is a type of the true church, the daughters are false Christian churches that the Beloved will not even consider as suitable brides. Some think they are simply the unconverted.

The daughters of Jerusalem appear as characters in the Song of Songs. They are identified as one group of women among others including the Shulamite's brothers. Their speaking parts are suggested in certain translations. They can claim a family relationship with the Shulamite but the proof of true relation lies in hearing and doing God's Word. The daughters of Jerusalem and the brothers are presented as figures whose roles require comparison with other scriptures to pinpoint.

Throughout the Old Testament both terms sons and daughters are used to represent anyone having the characteristics of another without any blood relationship intended. Both sons and daughters are used to represent both genders when a whole population is described as in the term the daughters of Jerusalem, which includes both men and women. God there called them daughters because of the overall gender of the context in which it appeared.