This verse and the next form a pair about work and timing: Proverbs 10:4–5.
Quick answer
A slack hand and a diligent hand tend toward opposite ends. An observation about the ordinary economics of effort, not a verdict declaring every poor person lazy or every rich person diligent.
Read both lines
Everything in this proverb happens at the hands: the Hebrew sets a loose, idle palm against a sharp, decisive one, and lets the trajectories speak. As a general pattern it is simply true, and Proverbs restates it often. But the same book refuses to let the pattern become a verdict: it knows about poverty caused by injustice (13:23) and commands honor toward the poor (14:31, 22:22–23). The saying describes what effort tends to produce; it cannot be run in reverse to diagnose why someone is poor.
Related: Proverbs 6:6–11 · Proverbs 13:23
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.