city which the Jebusites had occupied (2 Sam. 5:7). It came to be applied to the royal quarter of the city where the temple was also located, and so often signifies the community in its religious identity. As the Hebrew term for a city is grammatically a feminine noun, it was natural to personify a city as a woman. ‘Daughter of Zion’ (literally) does not imply that Zion had a daughter; rather that she is personified as a daughter (cf. 37:22). On occasions the term seems to have overtones of tenderness.