Talebearers Are Troublemakers

Have you ever shared something with a person in confidence, only to find out later that they told someone else, or maybe several people? You met a talebearer. They’re as old as the Old Testament, and they caused trouble then and they're still spreading trouble like weeds to this day. A talebearer has an overwhelming desire to share other people’s business.

"Talebearer" is a word that we don’t use in everyday language anymore. It sounds like we should be able to figure it out just by breaking down the word, but it’s more accurate to look it up. We want to know what it is so we can know how not to become one, because a talebearer is a troublemaker.

A basic definition of a talebearer as we would understand it today is a malicious gossip or someone who reveals confidential information such as secrets. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary provides an older picture of the word, defining a talebearer as “A person who officiously tells tales.”

In the Strong’s Concordance, you’ll find two numbers for the word talebearer: H1980 which means to walk about; to spread, to carry, and H5372, which means a whisperer, backbiter, or one who murmurs or slanders. In short, a talebearer is a harmful person. Let’s consider three warnings about the talebearer. We also need to examine our own lives to see if we're engaging in the deceptive behaviors of a talebearer.

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