1 Timothy 5:13

13 And if they are on the list, they will learn to be lazy and will spend their time gossiping from house to house, meddling in other people’s business and talking about things they shouldn’t.

1 Timothy 5:13 Meaning and Commentary

1 Timothy 5:13

And withal they learn to be idle
Being at ease, and without labour, living at the expense of the church: "wandering about from house to house"; having nothing else to do: such an one is what the Jews F26 call (tybbwv hnmla) , "the gadding widow"; who, as the gloss says,

``goes about and visits her neighbours continually; and these are they that corrupt the world.''

Of this sort of women must the Jews be understood, when they say {a}, it is one of the properties of them to be (twynauwy) "going out", or gadding abroad, as Dinah did; and that it is another to be (twyrbd) , "talkative", which agrees with what follows:

and not only idle, but tattlers also;
full of talk, who have always some news to tell, or report to make of the affairs of this, or the other person, or family:

and busy bodies;
in the matters of other persons, which do not concern them:

speaking things which they ought not;
which either are not true, and, if they are, are not to be spoken of, and carried from place to place: this is a very great inconvenience, the apostle observes, arising from the admission of such young widows to be relieved and maintained at the church's charge.


FOOTNOTES:

F26 T. Bab. Sota, fol. 22. 1.
F1 Bereshit Rabba, sect. 45. fol. 40. 3.

1 Timothy 5:13 In-Context

11 The younger widows should not be on the list, because their physical desires will overpower their devotion to Christ and they will want to remarry.
12 Then they would be guilty of breaking their previous pledge.
13 And if they are on the list, they will learn to be lazy and will spend their time gossiping from house to house, meddling in other people’s business and talking about things they shouldn’t.
14 So I advise these younger widows to marry again, have children, and take care of their own homes. Then the enemy will not be able to say anything against them.
15 For I am afraid that some of them have already gone astray and now follow Satan.
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