Charles Ellicott Commentary Ecclesiastes 2:24

"There is nothing better for a man [than] that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God." — Ecclesiastes 2:24 (ASV)

Nothing better. —“Not good” is the sense of the Hebrew as it stands, for it should be noted that the word “than” is in italics.

But as this word might easily have dropped out due to a transcriber’s error, interpreters, considering Ecclesiastes 3:12; Ecclesiastes 3:22; Ecclesiastes 5:18; Ecclesiastes 8:15, generally agree to modify the text to give it the meaning of our version. According to this version, the sense is: “Given the uncertainty of the future, the only good a man can get from his labor is the present pleasure he can make his labor yield for himself; and whether he can even enjoy this much depends on God.”

If the text is not altered, the sense is: “It is not good for a man to eat, etc., since it depends on God whether or not that is possible.”