Except for the line they are a perverse and crooked generation, this verse in Hebrew is very difficult. Moses is talking about the people of Israel. New Revised Standard Version translates the first line in Hebrew as “yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him,” with a footnote stating that the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain; New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and New International Version have alternative renderings in footnotes.

Hebrew Old Testament Text Project ({B} rating) proposes the following:
it [that is, the generation of the last line] has dealt perversely with him, they are no longer his children (that is their blemish).

Hebrew Old Testament Text Project also suggests that a note should be added: “ ‘(that is their blemish)’ perhaps a gloss.” This may be a good model for those translations in which the note “perhaps a gloss” is helpful; but in many translations a note like this will hinder rather than help. In such cases a translator can use the Good News Translation as a model, with the footnote “Hebrew unclear.”

The first thing to do when translating is to clearly establish who Revised Standard Version They are. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version do well by introducing at once “You,” that is, the people of Israel; but we may also say “You people of Israel….”

The following is proposed as a model, translating along the lines suggested by Hebrew Old Testament Text Project:

• But you have sinned against the LORD,
and because of your faults
you are no longer his children;
you are a wicked and deceitful people.

It is important that readers should understand this verse as an accusation and not just as a statement of fact. See similar language in 9.12.

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 .