A whisperer defiles his own soul and is hated in his neighborhood: A whisperer is someone who gossips. There is a connection here with the previous verse since the gossip also hurts himself, so there should not be a paragraph break at the beginning of this verse as in Good News Translation. An alternative model is:

• A gossip may talk about other people, but he is hurting his own character. People around him will despise him.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Sirach. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.