And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
And furthermore, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
And further, my son, take note of this: of the making of books there is no end, and much learning is a weariness to the flesh.
And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
Furthermore, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
And furthermore, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
And farther, by these, my son, be admonished - Hear such teachers, and receive their admonitions; and do not receive the grace of God in vain.
Of making many books there is no end - Two thousand years have elapsed since this was written; and since that time some millions of treatises have been added, on all kinds of subjects, to those which have gone before. The press is still groaning under and teeming with books, books innumerable; and no one subject is yet exhausted, notwithstanding all that has been written on it. And we who live in these latter times are no nearer an end, in the investigation of Nature and its properties; of God, his attributes, his providence, his justice, and his mercy; of Man, his animal life, his mode of nutrition and existence, and his soul and its powers; of Jesus, and the redemption by him; of Eternity, and what it implies as exhibiting to us the pains of the cursed, and the glories of the blessed. Of several of these we know no more than they who have lived five thousand years before us; nor do we know any thing certainly by the endless books that have been published, except what bears the seal of the God of heaven, as published in that word which was declared by his Spirit.
And much study is a weariness of the flesh - O how true is this! Let the trembling knees, the palsied hands, the darkened eyes, the aching heart, and the puzzled mind of every real student declare! And should none more worthy of the name of student be within reach to consult, the writer of this work is a proof in point.
By these - i. e., "By the words of wise men."
Books - Rather, "Writings." Probably the proverbs current in the Preacher's age, including, though not especially indicating, his own.
The Preacher protests against the folly of protracted, unprofitable, meditation.
12:12 By these - By these wise men, and their writings.