Deuteronomy 24 · a question people ask
What was wrong with taking a millstone as a pledge?
The verse gives its own reason: "No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone as a pledge, for he takes a life in pledge" (24:6). Brown-Driver-Briggs describes the word for "the mill" as "(hand-)mill (prob. = two mill-stones)". A mill was for grinding: in the wilderness the people gathered the manna "and ground it in mills" (Numbers 11:8), the same Hebrew word. The word for "the upper millstone" is rekhev, which in 20:1 is "chariots" (Brown-Driver-Briggs: "chariotry, chariot, mill-stone"). The word for "life" is nefesh, the word of "the blood is the life" (12:23). The chapter guards clothing in the same way: a poor man's garment goes back before night (24:12-13), and a widow's clothing is not to be taken in pledge at all (24:17).
The verses
“No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone as a pledge, for he takes a life in pledge.”
“The people went around, gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it. Its taste was like the taste of fresh oil.”
“When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.”
“Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood; for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat.”