Deuteronomy 24:6

Mill or Upper Millstone not to be taken in Pledge. This would be to pledge lifeitself. Milling (as largely still in Palestine) was mainly domestic, the first indispensable duty of the day; the sound of the millstonesas sure a sign of a living family as the light of the candle(Jeremiah 25:10; Revelation 18:22; see Jerus.i. 375 f.). The mill, like the Western -quern," consisted of two stones, as the dual form of the Heb. name indicates (reḥaim, cp. Ar. raḥâ, Baldensperger, PEFQ, 1904, 263), of which the upper, Heb. rçkeb, rider, LXX ἐπιμύλιον, was the lighter and more easily lifted (Judges 9:53).

This law is peculiar to D, and related to the next but two (10 13), which however is in the direct form of address, as this is not, and uses -abatfor pledgeinstead of ḥabal(lit. bind) as here. The position of the law is natural after the previous one. In Israel, lands, houses and children were mortgaged (Nehemiah 5:3; Nehemiah 5:5), in Babylonia and Assyria slaves, lands and houses (Johns, op. cit.ch. 24). Of such pledges there is nothing in D, but note the next law. -The ancient Common Law of England provides that no man be distrained by the utensils or instruments of his trade or profession … Cook (sic), I Inst., fo. 47." (M. Henry.)