Verses 2-3 picture Jerusalem as though it were a beautiful pasture land, where shepherds come to feed their flocks. But verses 4-5 immediately identify the shepherds and their flocks as hostile armies, set on the destruction of the city.

The comely and delicately bred I will destroy represents the interpretation suggested by Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. However, the meaning is uncertain. First, the word rendered comely (Good News Translation “beautiful”) may also mean “meadow” or “pasture.” Second, the verb rendered destroy may also mean “be like” or “resemble.” Third, the form of the verb may be first person singular or an old second feminine singular form, as is often found in Jeremiah. Consequently, one possible translation, suggested in one commentary (Holladay), would be “You are like the most delicate pasture, fair Zion!” This actually fits well in the context of the following verse, where the shepherds come with their flocks against Jerusalem.

Finally, there are some scholars who believe that the text as it stands is corrupt, and should be rendered as a question form: “Is it a meadow fair, the higher slopes of Sion?” (Moffatt). However, there is no textual basis for this rendering, only the imaginative restructuring of an assumed corrupted text.

Both Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch apparently accept the interpretation proposed by Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. However, each of these translations shifts to an impersonal construction: “The city of Zion is beautiful, but it will be destroyed” (Good News Translation) and “Jerusalem, you beautiful, well taken care of city, your end is now here!” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Translators who retain the first person may say something like “City of Zion, you are beautiful and delicate, but I will destroy you.” It may be wise to translate daughter of Zion as “Jerusalem” (so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) to mark the identity between the two places mentioned in verses 1 and 2. See 4.31.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .