TALE.Tale in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] generally means number or sum, as Exo_5:18 Yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks. And the verb to tell sometimes means to number, as Gen_15:5 Tell the stars, if thou be able to number them, where the same Heb. verb is translated tell and number.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
tāl (תּכן, tōkhen, מתכּנת, mithkōneth, מספּר, miṣpār; λῆρος, lḗros): In the King James Version of the Old Testament (with one exception, Psa_90:9) ?tale? (in the sing.) means number. ?Tell? often has the same meaning, e.g. ?I may tell (i.e. reckon) all my bones? (Psa_22:17). When Moses requested permission to go three days' journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to Yahweh, Pharaoh replied by demanding the full ?tale? of bricks from the Israelites although they were compelled to provide themselves with straw (Exo_5:8, Exo_5:18; see also 1Sa_18:27; 1Ch_9:28). In Psa_90:9, ?as a tale that is told? is a doubtful rendering (see GAMES). The Septuagint and the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) render ?as a spider's web.? The literal and perhaps accurate translation is ?as a sigh? (Driver, in the Parallel Psalter, gives ?as a murmur?). The word used in this psalm means ?to whisper,? or ?speak sotto voce,? as a devout believer repeats to himself the words of a favorite hymn or passage (Psa_1:2).
The disciples considered the account given by the women in regard to the resurrection as ?idle tales? (the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) ?idle talk?), literally, ?nonsensical talk? (Luk_24:11).
In talebearer the word has another meaning, namely, ?slanderous talk or gossip.? The word occurs 5 times in Pro_11:13; Pro_18:8; Pro_20:19; Pro_26:20, Pro_26:22 (the King James Version) and once in Leviticus (Lev_19:16). The word used in Leviticus and also in Pro_20:19 means a person who gads about from house to house hawking malicious gossip (compare 1Ti_5:13). From the same root comes the Hebrew word for ?merchant.? In Eze_22:9 for the King James Version ?men that carry tales? the Revised Version (British and American) gives ?slanderous men,? as Doeg (1Sa_22:9, 1Sa_22:22); Ziba (2Sa_16:3; 2Sa_19:27); and a certain maid-servant (2Sa_17:17). See SLANDER.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.