Bible Dictionaries
Mill

Holman Bible Dictionary

Two circular stones used to grind grain. Usually, it was worked by two women facing each other. One woman fed the grain at the center, and the other guided the products into little piles. The grain to be ground is fed into the central hole in the upper stone and gradually works down between the stones. As the grain is reduced to flour, it flies out from between the stones onto a cloth or skin placed underneath the mill. To make fine flour, it is reground and sifted. The stone was made of basalt and was about a foot and a half in diameter and two to four inches thick.

It was forbidden to take millstones as a pledge because they were so important to sustaining life (Deuteronomy 24:6 ). The manna which fell in the wilderness was tough enough so that people ground it in mills before cooking it (Numbers 11:7-8 ).

In the New Testament, our Lord prophesied that at His coming, “two women shall be grinding at the mill, one shall be taken and one other is left” (Matthew 24:41 ). In Revelation 18:21 , the millstone was cast into the sea as a symbol of absolute destruction. See Manna .

Gary Bonner