The hand of the diligent will rule, but the slothful will be put to forced labor (Proverbs 12:24 AMP).Slothfulness is one of the antonyms of diligence. That means the one who isn’t diligent is slothful, and will of necessity live a hard life, while the diligent receives promotion. The New Living Translation puts it this way, "Work hard and become a leader; be lazy and become a slave." It makes no difference what you do; if you work hard, you’ll be a leader and a champion. When it says, "Work hard," it means to diligently do whatever is required to be done to achieve excellence in what you do.
The slothful ending up a slave doesn’t mean he’s going to be a slave to somebody else, but to a system. That means he’ll be hemmed-in in life—a slave of the system—
