What is a millstone in the Bible?
Answered from the commentary of Morrish Bible Dictionary, Arno Clemens Gaebelein, The Bible Treasury and 15 others
A millstone is the stone of the mill on which grain was ground into meal for daily bread. In the East every family usually had its own small hand-mill. A woman, or sometimes two, sat at it, turning the upper stone and casting in grain through a hole in it, while larger mills had the stone turned by an ass. It was a weary toil, especially for women.
Because a household lived by its mill, the law of Deuteronomy 24:6 forbade a creditor to take the upper or lower millstone as a pledge. Taking it would deprive the debtor of the instrument he needed to prepare food and do his normal work, and so would be like taking a man's life as a pledge. For the same reason, the sound of the millstones stands for ordinary daily life. Its silencing in Jeremiah 25:10 and Revelation 18:22 marks a desolation that is complete.
Grinding at the millstone was also the lot of the slave. Babylon would fall from mistress of kingdoms to the condition of a slave at the millstone (Isaiah 47:1-2). Samson, blinded and bound, had to grind in the Philistines' prison house (Judges 16:21). That is a solemn warning of the "binding, blinding, grinding" bondage of sin.
The heavy stone also becomes an instrument and figure of God's judgment. The Lord said it would be better for a man to have a millstone hung about his neck and be drowned in the sea than to offend one of the little ones who believe in Him (Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2). In Matthew and Mark it is the great millstone turned by an ass. The authors read this as the most terrible judgment on whoever puts a stumbling-block before such a one or shakes their confidence in Christ. Injury done to one of them is injury done to Him. To offend a little one is to be on the way to "the judgment of the millstone".
That judgment is pictured in Revelation 18:21, where a mighty angel casts a stone like a great millstone into the sea. The action echoes Jeremiah's stone sinking in the Euphrates (Jeremiah 51:60-64). It betokens the violent, complete, final and irreversible destruction of Babylon. Earlier, Abimelech was struck down by a piece of millstone cast by a woman (Judges 9:53). There a simple instrument of humble daily toil became God's means of righteous retribution.
A few authors draw further meanings. One sees Babylon herself figured by the millstone, as the hard and merciless grinder of God's wheat. Others take the millstone in Babylon to speak of commerce and the industrial wealth that enriched men.
Verses: Isaiah 47:1, Jeremiah 51:60, Jeremiah 51:61, Jeremiah 51:62, Jeremiah 51:63, Jeremiah 51:64, Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2, Deuteronomy 24:6, Judges 9:53, 2 Samuel 11:21, Revelation 18:21, Revelation 18:22, Jeremiah 25:10, Job 41:24, Isaiah 47:2, Matthew 24:41, Luke 17:35, Exodus 11:5, Numbers 11:8, Judges 16:21, Lamentations 5:13, Ecclesiastes 12:3, Ecclesiastes 12:4
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
In the East these are usually small, every family having its own mill. A woman, or sometimes two sit at the mill, turning the upper stone, casting in the grain occasionally through a hole in it Larger mills are also referred to, the stone being turned by an ass. Num. 11:8; Matt. 18:6; Mark 9:42; Rev. 18:21-22.
dochan. Small seeds used as an ingredient in coarse bread or in pottage. Ezek. 4:9. The Hebrew word is held to embrace at least two species of millet, the Sorghum vulgare and the Panicum miliaceum.
No part of the handmill, the millstone, was to be taken as a pledge, for that would have deprived the person of the necessary instrument in the preparation of food. Manstealing was forbidden under penalty of death (Ex. 21:16).
The law of verse 6 also is one of consideration for people's need. It was allowed that one could take a pledge of another, who was indebted to the first. But the creditor must not take the upper or lower millstone of the other as a pledge, for this would deprive the debtor of the means of doing his normal work. Actually, this would hinder his ability to repay his debt, as the creditor should realize, but worse than this, it would be disobedience to God.
(b) In the next place we have two laws also, of which the first is again a concession with a limit. A creditor might take a pledge of his poor neighbor, but not the hand-mill which ground his corn from day to day: it would be taking a man's life as pledge. The greed that would actually steal a man was to be punished with death.
Here the Lord lets the disciples425 know the certainty of stumbling-blocks in such a world as this, and the awful doom of those who cause them. "It would be more profitable426 for him if a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the sea," (Cf. Matt. 18:6f.) says the Lord about any one so offending others. Hence we have to take heed to ourselves, as His disciples; and while guarding against being caused to stumble by others, we have to cherish the grace of God which is as essential to Christianity as the law was to the Jews as their rule. "Take heed to yourselves; if thy brother should sin, rebuke him; and if he should repent, forgive him." (Matt. 18:15.) It supposes that there is an evil course and current in the world, which may affect every one's brother; but grace is never intended to weaken the moral reprobation of what is evil. "If thy brother should sin, rebuke him; and if he should repent, forgive him." "Millstone": so Edd. after ℵBDL, 1, 69, Old Lat. Memph. Arm. In Matt. 18:6, and Mark 9:42, it is "millstone turned by an ass," as here in A, etc., Syrr..
I will not go into the details; though they are very interesting and profitable reading, and show us how this prophecy of Jotham's was fulfilled to the very letter. Fire comes out from the men of Shechem and consumes Abimelech, and fire comes out from Abimelech and consumes the men of Shechem. The men of Shechem receive a rival to Abimelech. They receive him in a half-hearted way, and then thrust him out to meet Abimelech, who puts him to flight. The men of Shechem are still at enmity with Abimelech, and he is put into open conflict with them, and overthrows them. When they flee to their tower, he brings branches of these very trees, brings the parable of his brother, we might say, and sets fire to the door of the tower, and burns up those who had sided with his rival.
Then Abimelech goes after another man to another city, and there is seeking to do the same thing, to burn out those who had found shelter in the tower, when a woman's hand with a piece of millstone — feebleness using that which is a simple instrument of daily toil, daily humble toil of a weak woman — makes an end of him. She takes the millstone and throws it out, crushing Abimelech, and all his power with him. It is done by the hand of a woman.
In the 46th chapter we have learned the folly of idols, in this chapter we have the exposure of the nakedness and shame of those who turn from God to idols, and spiritual wickedness.
(Vv. 1–3). The destruction of Babylon is foretold. The empire would be laid in the dust. Instead of living delicately, the Chaldeans would with shame, pass over the river into captivity. From ruling over the world as the mistress of kingdoms, the first great Gentile empire would fall into the condition of a slave at the millstone. Thus God would take vengeance on those who had shown no mercy to His people, and none would stay His hand (N. Tn.).
It is not the power that makes Abimelech that can unmake him. He prevails against Shechem, only to perish by a woman's hand at Thebez. Here the millstone reminds us of Babylon's overthrow, where, in Rev. 18:21, the symbol of the Old Testament prophet is taken up by the New. In these Babylon herself is figured by the millstone, as the hard and merciless grinder of God's wheat. In the story in Judges, the millstone is the cause of Abimelech's destruction; yet these two things are almost one: it is character that brings destruction from God; and the woman's hand, what is it but the Church of God whose cries have gone up to God, and who in this way brings the punishment? The mill-stone and the woman's hand are thus really complementary thoughts that perfect the application.
Firstly, in the sight of men it is an imposing system, for it is spoken of as a "great city." Eight times in the course of these chapters the city is referred to as "great." There is everything in it to appeal to the natural man. In verse 22 we read of the music by which it charms the natural ear; of the "craft" that has filled Europe with magnificent buildings that gratify the eye. Then there is found within it the "millstone" that speaks of the commerce by which it has enriched men with material wealth. In it is found the artificial light of the candle speaking of its appeal to natural sentiment, and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride, speaking of natural joy.
Riches and material prosperity have come to Christendom through "the sound of the millstone," but it shall be heard "no more at all in thee." The mill-stone tells us of the industrial world, and the industrial revolutions in Western Europe have brought to these lands "fulness of bread"; and, like Sodom and Israel, when in prosperity, there has been pride of heart, luxury, leisure, and forgetfulness of God.
Verses
- Isaiah 47:1–21Come down and sit in the dust, virgin-daughter of Babylon! Sit on the ground, — [there is] no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. 2Take the millstones, and grind meal; remove thy veil, lift up the train, uncover the leg, pass over rivers
- Jeremiah 51:60–6460And Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon. 61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, see that thou read all these words; 62and say, Jehovah, thou hast spoken concerning this place, that thou wilt cut it off, so that none shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever. 63And it shall be, when thou hast ended reading this book, [that] thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates; 64and shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise, because of the evil that I will bring upon it and they shall be weary. Thus far the words of Jeremiah.
- Matthew 18:6But whosoever shall offend one of these little ones who believe in me, it were profitable for him that a great millstone had been hanged upon his neck and he be sunk in the depths of the sea.