If Thou Doth Not Work
                   Neither Shall He Eat

Pretty cut-and-dried.  Doesn't leave much room for any circumstantial nuances.

During Biblical times "working" was toiling in the fields---planting, tilling, harvesting.  Or being a tailor, the one who produces garments for people to wear.  Or the baker, the one who makes the bread.  Or a butcher.  Or a cook.  Or a blacksmith who makes items out of iron and metal for specific uses and purposes.
In short, to work was to produce items of substance and to provide essential services.  There was a purpose to working.

Of course the whole concept of "work" is subjective anyway.  It's not so much whether or not one works as it is just what one is accomplishing by their efforts.  If a paycheck is the primary reason for one's efforts then the whole concept becomes a series of perpetual cliche perfunctory rituals.

And, even if unemployed, one could still be hard at work on a passionate creative hobby with intricate details not to be overlooked if said project is to be carried out properly.