Who are “the daughters of my city” to which the writer refers?

There are at least three ways in which the daughters of my city can be understood.

1. Least likely is the viewpoint that the plural is only an alternative expression for the reference to Jerusalem as the daughter of Zion. This expression is found earlier in Lamentations 1:6, but there is no further reason to identify this expression in this way.¹

2. It may refer to the female part of the city, Jerusalem. Out of all Jerusalem’s population it is the female part who aroused the writer’s pity the most. If this is the case, his grief points to the dire situation of the women of Jerusalem. Especially in times of war and catastrophe, women are particularly vulnerable. While they must cope without their sons and husbands who are busy in the war or already killed, they themselves are subject to all kinds of evil at the hands of their victors.² While their suffering is described elsewhere (see Lamentations 2:10, Lamentations 2:12; Lamentations 4:2,Lamentations 4:10;Lamentations 5:11), some are of the opinion that there is no motivation to single them out for mention at this point.³

3. Others understand it as a reference to the smaller rural towns of Judah. In this instance the reference to daughters is seen as an instance of the Hebrew idiom for the villages and settlements. This idea is based on references to the smaller villages surrounding a major city (see Numbers 21:25; Nehemiah 11:25,Nehemiah 11:30). It may be that the writer surveyed the territory outside Jerusalem, which increased his sorrow.⁴ While this viewpoint may be a possibility, it is not without critique. Some scholars are of the opinion that it is completely against current Hebrew usage, and there is no reason why special mention should be made of these other places.⁵

In considering the different options, it seems that the second and third are most probable. Between these two, the second—the female population of Jerusalem—serves the context well. It is in line with the personal nature of this chapter and the writer’s expression in Lamentations 2:11–19.⁶