1 Timothy 5:12-13

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 T. Bab. Sota, fol. 22. 1. call אלמנה שובבית , "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 F1 Bereshit Rabba, sect. 45. fol. 40. 3. , it is one of the properties of them to be יוצאניות "going out", or gadding abroad, as Dinah did; and that it is another to be דבריות , "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.