Millstones

Pairs of upper and lower millstones were used for grinding grain in the ancient East. Millstones were common features of the daily life of ordinary people.

Millstones as a means of earning a living

Deuteronomy 24:6 See also Isaiah 47:1–2; Jeremiah 25:10; Revelation 18:22

Do not take a pair of millstones or even an upper millstone as security for a debt, because that would be taking one’s livelihood as security.

Millstones were heavy and burdensome

Matthew 18:6 parallels Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2

But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Millstones as potential weapons

Judges 9:50–53 See also 2 Samuel 11:21

Then Abimelech went to Thebez, encamped against it, and captured it. But there was a strong tower inside the city, and all the men, women, and leaders of the city fled there. They locked themselves in and went up to the roof of the tower. When Abimelech came to attack the tower, he approached its entrance to set it on fire. But a woman dropped an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, crushing his skull.

Millstones in figurative use

Job 41:24

His chest is as hard as a rock, as hard as a lower millstone!

Millstones as symbols of destructive force

Revelation 18:21

Then a mighty angel picked up a stone the size of a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying: “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be cast down, never to be seen again.