"Daughters" in Scripture is a collective term for the inhabitants of a city, and it includes men as well as women. Ancient Near Eastern culture personified a capital city as a woman and its inhabitants collectively as her daughter. Jerusalem is the woman whose husband is Yahweh, and her daughters depend on her for identity while shaping her future by their actions. Lamentations 3:51 shows this when Jeremiah laments "all the daughters of my city," meaning every inhabitant of Jerusalem, male and female. Ezekiel 16 uses the same idiom. Jerusalem's "daughters" share her corruption, and she and her daughters will be restored along with Sodom and her daughters and Samaria and her daughters. Hosea likewise shows that harlotry ran through the whole nation, men and women alike, generation after generation. Terms such as sons, daughters, children, and harlots therefore describe those who show the characteristics in question, without regard to gender. This usage governs the "mother of harlots" in Revelation 17:5. The city Babylon is the mother, and her "harlots" are her inhabitants, male and female. They are not Protestant denominations that came out of the Catholic Church.

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.