Deut 24:6

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shall take.

Small hand-mills, which ground at one time only a sufficient quantity for a day's consumption; hence they were forbidden to take either of the stones to pledge, because if they did, they would be deprived of the means of preparing their necessary food, and the family be without bread.

On this account they are called in the text, a man's life.

The same reason holds good against receiving in pledge, or distraining for debt, any instrument of labour, by which men earn their livelihood.

Exod 22:26; Exod 22:27; Rev 18:22

life.

Deut 20:19; Gen 44:30; Luke 12:15