Commentators unanimously explain that being "slack in his work" is not a minor or neutral flaw. Charles Ellicott states that neglect of duty causes "almost as much mischief in life as active wickedness." Similarly, Matthew Henry warns that "omissions of duty... are fatal to the soul, as well as commissions of sin." The verse equates the lazy person with a "destroyer" because the outcome is often the same: ruin and waste.