With such a word a fool will suffer pangs like a woman in labor with a child: Good News Translation provides a good model for this verse. Good News Translation says “foolish person” instead of fool. In English the two expressions are different. “Foolish” as an adjective is a way of describing behavior; the noun fool is an insult. See the comments on 8.17. A woman in labor may be rendered “a woman giving birth to a child.” An alternative model for this verse is:

• It hurts a foolish person not to repeat gossip [or, a secret] just as much as giving birth pains a woman.

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.