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Bible Dictionaries
Mill
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Mill. Matthew 24:41. The Jewish hand-mill consisted of two circular stones, each about 18 inches or two feet in diameter, the lower of which is fixed, and has its upper surface slightly convex, fitting into a corresponding concavity in the upper stone. In the latter is a hole through which the grain passes, immediately above a pivot or shaft which rises from the centre of the lower stone, and about which the upper stone is turned by means of an upright handle fixed near the edge. It is worked by women, sometimes singly and sometimes two together, who are usually seated on the bare ground, Isaiah 47:1-2, facing each other; both have hold of the handle by which the upper is turned round on the "nether" millstone. The one whose right hand is disengaged throws in the grain as occasion requires through the hole in the upper stone. It is not correct to say that one pushes it half round and then the other seizes the handle. This would be slow work, and would give a spasmodic motion to the stone. Both retain their hold; and pull to or push from, as men do with the whip or cross-cut saw. The proverb of our Saviour, Matthew 24:41, is true to life, for women only grind. So essential were millstones for daily domestic use that they were forbidden to be taken in pledge. Deuteronomy 24:6. There were also larger mills driven by cattle or asses. Matthew 18:6. With the movable upper millstone of the hand-mill the woman of Thebez broke Abimelech's skull. Judges 9:53.
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Mill'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/m/mill.html. 1893.
