Food & daily life
Millstone
A heavy stone used to grind grain into flour.
Also called · grinding stone · hand-mill stone
What it means
A mill grinds grain between stones. Small mills can be operated by hand, while larger ones can use animal power.
Deuteronomy 24 forbids taking a mill or its upper stone as security for debt because this takes away a means of sustaining life.
How it appears in the Bible
In Matthew 18, Jesus places a child among the disciples and warns against causing one of the little ones who believe in him to stumble. He says that being sunk in the deep sea with a huge millstone around one’s neck would be better.
Translation note
The WEB calls the stone thrown in Judges 9:53 an upper millstone and the one in Matthew 18:6 a huge millstone.