This is a grim description of siege conditions, with emphasis on cannibalism (see Lev 26.29; 2 Kgs 6.28-29; Jer 19.9; Lam 2.24; 4.10; Ezek 5.10).

You shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and daughters: the emphatic form should be reproduced in translation if possible. But if it sounds unnatural in a translator’s language, we may say, for example, “you will even eat the children” (Good News Translation).

Whom the LORD your God has given you: for this reason they are all the more precious.

In the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you: this describes the general situation, and it is better to place it at the beginning of the verse (see Good News Translation). This full statement is repeated, with slight variations, in verses 55 and 57. More natural ways of stating this should be used: “the desperate straits to which your enemies will reduce you during the siege,” or “while your [plural] enemies are surrounding your towns, you will become so desperate that you will even eat….” “Desperate” may be also expressed as “without hope,” “hopeless,” “feel that there is nothing else to do,” “feel there is no way out,” “feel that there is no other path to follow.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .