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millstone
MILLSTONE. The mill stone used for grinding grain.
These consist of two circular stones,
about eighteen 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. The latter, called by the Hebrews rekeb, "chariot," and by the
Arabs rekkab, "rider," has a hole in it through which the grain passes,
immediately above a pivot or shaft that rises from the center 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. (Matt.
24:41) The labor is very hard. So essential were millstones for daily domestic use
that they were not to be taken in pledge (Deut 24:6; Josephus Ant. 4.8.26) in
order that a man's family might not be deprived of the means of preparing their
food.
It was the millstone of a mill of this kind, driven by a donkey, that is
alluded to in (Mt 18:6). With the movable upper millstone of the hand mill the women
of Thebez broke Abimelech's skull (Judg 9:53).