Then their hearts were shaken and their hands trembled: Their hearts were shaken means that the people of Jerusalem “lost their courage” (Good News Translation). Their hands trembled because they were afraid, but this is more idiomatic than literal. Good News Translation “shook with fear” is good, but we could translate simply “became very afraid.”

And they were in anguish, like women in travail: The people were not actually “in pain” at this point, as Good News Translation has it. They were in anguish (or distress, agony, torment); Contemporary English Version says simply “they suffered.” A woman in travail or “in labor” (Good News Translation) is giving birth. An alternative model for this line is “and they suffered like a woman giving birth” (Contemporary English Version).

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.