I would consider 'providential hinderances' as a valid reason one cannot work.
In regards to the word, 'work', I believe u are on the right track; it would seem that it is contrasted w/ being a sluggard:
ἔργον, ἐργάζομαι.
A. General Usage.
1. The Greek Usage.
Ἔργον, which derives from the same Indo-Germanic stem and has the same meaning as the English “work” (German
Werk), and the verbal derivative ἐργάζεσθαι, were both in common use from the time of Homer and Hesiod, and many concepts came to be associated with them, though none specifically. They both denote action or active zeal in contrast to idleness (ἀεργία [ἀργία]), or useful activity in contrast to useless busy-ness (περιεργάζεσθαι, 2 Th. 3:11; cf. περίεργος, Ac. 19:19; 1 Tm. 5:13; also the charge against Socrates, Plat. Ap., 19b), or any kind of active work. The words may be used of agriculture and agricultural economy, but also of the pursuit of various trades, of all kinds of occupations, of commercial undertakings, of trade, shipping and fishing (Rev. 18:17), of the chase, and of art, sculpture and poetry. They may also be applied to working in various materials (metal, wood, stone, clay), or the fashioning or erection of various objects such as vessels or buildings, or all kinds of technical or cultural works, including the winning of natural products, For these varied possibilities there are several examples in the Gk. Bible. The terms also denote work in the social or ethical sense either as a burden laid on man or as a necessary means of life and support. They are applied no less to the domestic tasks of woman than to the public work of men. They refer to works of peace and services in the public welfare, but also to heroic acts of war. As they are thus used in the sphere of moral action, various adjectives are ascribed to them to denote their worth (ἔργα καλά, ἀγαθά, θαυμαστά, ἄδικα, κακά, ἀείκεα; σωφροσύνην, ἀρετὴν ἐργἁζεσθαι [Isoc., 13, 6], also ἔργα ἀρετῆς [Xenoph. Cyrop., I, 5, 8]). The cultural significance of work, which is also the divinely willed plan for human life, is especially emphasised in Hes. Op., 307 ff.: ἐξ ἔργων δʼ ἄνδρες πολύμηλοί τʼ ἀφνειοί τε· | καὶ ἐργαζὁμενοι πολὺ φίλτεροι ἀθανάτοισιν. | ἔργον δʼ οὐδὲν ὄνειδος, ἀεργύη δὲ τʼ ὄνειδος. The life of Heracles as one of laborious action in the service of humanity is an exemplary fulfilment of human destiny as depicted in popular Cynic philosophy, which regards it as an ideal. The Hellenistic period thus appropriates at root the ethos of work which dominates the
Works and Days of Hesiod. Honest work is the basis and meaning of life. Naturally, then, a man is judged by his works, his achievements, his deeds, his total conduct. A similar formula ἐκ τῶν ἔργων γιγνώσκειν is often found, e.g., in Xenophon. There is a comparable estimation of man by his works in the Mystery cults on the basis of natural morality. Thus in the inscription on an altar of the Attis-Cybele cult, found in Rome in 1919, we read: ἔργα, νόον, πρῆξιν, βίον ἔξοχον ἐσθλὰ προπάντα … τοῦτο φέρω τὸ θῦμα. Outside the Bible there is no specifically religious use of ἔργον and ἐργάζεσθαι, though ἔργα ἀθανάτων is often used of the rule and works of the gods (Hom. Il., 16, 120; 19, 22). On the other hand, ἔργον is a philosophical term, esp. in Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy.5 In Plato the term is linked with τέχνη (Gorg., 517c). There is a firm relation between ἀρετή and ἔργον (Resp., I, 352d). The word ἔργον comes from the sphere of civilisation, not of organic nature. For man the ἔργον ψυχῆς is central (Resp., 1, 353a-e). Aristotle developed the concept systematically. It is found at the beginning of the Nic. Ethics (I, 1, p. 1094a, 3 ff.). Ἔργα are by nature of more value and more worth seeking than ἐέργειαι. The ἀρετή of every creature, e.g., the eye or the race-horse, consists in fulfilling properly its specific ἔργον, i.e., seeing or running. Aristotle thus consistently applies the concept of the organic (ἔργον!) to the whole of nature (An., II, 1, p. 412a, 1 ff.). For him ἐνέργεια or ἔργον is the form of things, the fulfilment of the disposition inherent in matter. The state of fulfilment implies true and effective activity.
The passive use of ἔργον is also widespread. In this sense it means what is wrought, the result of work or the product of the process of work (e.g., a work of sculpture or architecture or literature or art, also defensive or offensive works; in the OT it is sometimes found for בְּלִי Nu. 4:16 or יוֹשֶׁר Sir. 9:17, and also for the fruit of the soil, e.g., Jer, 14:4), or for the reward of work either as wages or as gain. Finally, the thought of achievement sometimes retreats into the background and we simply have the weak sense of a “matter” or “thing."
Georg Bertram,
“Ἔργον, Ἐργάζομαι, Ἐργάτης, Ἐργασία, Ἐνεργής, Ἐνἑργεια, Ἐνεργέω, Ἐνέργημα, Εὐεργεσία, Εὐεργετἑω, Εὐεργέτης,” ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich,
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–), 635–636.