Grinding
Bread began with hard labour at the millstone, and the Bible borrows that image in several ways. Moses forbids taking a millstone as a pledge, because “he taketh a man’s life to pledge.” Job describes a hard heart as firm as “the nether millstone.” And the blinded Samson, taken by the Philistines to Gaza, ends up grinding in the prison house, a long way from the strength he once had. A tool of bread-making turns up as protection for the poor, a picture of toughness, and a sign of how far a man can fall.
3 verses
Deuteronomy
No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man's life to pledge.
Judges
But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.
Job
His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.