MILLSTONE, the stone by which corn is ground.
The millstones which we find preserved from ancient times are all small, and very different from those which are now in use. Thoresby mentions two or three such found in England, amongst other Roman antiquities, which were but twenty inches broad; and there is reason to believe that the Romans, as well as the Egyptians and Jews, did not employ horses, or wind, or water, as we do, to turn their mills, but made their slaves and captives of war do this laborious work. Sampson, when a prisoner to the Philistines, was treated no better, but condemned to turn the millstone in his prison. The runner or loose millstone, in this sort of grinding, was usually heavy for its size, being as thick as it was broad. This is the millstone which is expressly prohibited in Scripture to take in pledge, because, lying loose, it was more easily removed. The Talmudists relate, that the Chaldeans made the young men of the captivity carry millstones with them to Babylon; and hence, probably, their paraphrase renders the text "have borne the mills or millstones," which might thus be true in a literal sense. They have also a proverbial expression of a man with a millstone about his neck; which they use to express a man under the severest weight of affliction. This also plainly refers to the same small kind of stones.