This verse (Jeremiah 6:2) is said by many to be the hardest to translate in the book of Jeremiah because the meaning of many of the Hebrew words is uncertain. The second line of the verse makes it clear that the Lord is speaking about Jerusalem which he here calls the daughter of Zion.
What is not clear is what he says about Jerusalem in the first line. The two main translations of the first line are that either Jerusalem is compared to a lovely and delicate woman,
or she is compared to a beautiful pasture.1
The ESV appears to have favoured the first of these translations. However, in the poetry of Jeremiah 6:2–5 a peaceful pastoral scene around Jerusalem, where peaceful men might normally pitch their tents and pasture their flocks (Jeremiah 6:2–3) is compared to a scene that dramatically and suddenly changes into a battlefield (Jeremiah 6:4–5).2 It is therefore maybe preferrable to see Jerusalem compared to a peaceful pasture in Jeremiah 6:2, a scene that is about to be destroyed by the invading force from the north. This destruction is going to come from the hand of the Lord.
2 La belle et la délicate, Je la détruis, la fille de Sion!