Mill

The mill (reḥayim in Hebrew, dual form reflecting the two stones) was a household implement used to grind grain into flour, consisting of two circular millstones — a lower stationary stone (pelaḥ taḥtit) and an upper rotating stone (rekeb). Grinding was daily domestic labor performed primarily by women and female slaves. The sound of millstones was so characteristic of inhabited life that its cessation became a symbol of desolation: Jeremiah 25:10 lists the sound of millstones going silent among the signs of judgment, and Revelation 18:22 echoes this in the lament over Babylon.

Millstones were legally protected from seizure as pledges for debt (Deuteronomy 24:6) because they were essential for daily survival. Jesus references the millstone in a warning about causing children to stumble: it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea (Matthew 18:6).