Дварим 24:6 Комментарий: Rashi, Chizkuni, Ibn Ezra & Rashbam

לא יחבל NO MAN SHALL TAKE [THE LOWER OR THE UPPER MILLSTONE] AS PLEDGE — i.e. if one comes to demand a pledge through the court for his debt he should not take as a pledge anything by which food is prepared (Bava Metzia 113b, 115a).

לא יחבול ריחים, “A creditor is not to take as a pledge for an overdue loan the upper millstone;” although the word: “creditor,” did not appear in this verse it is clear that the creditor is the subject in this legislation. An alternate interpretation: The verse addresses itself to the creditor, who normally is not even allowed into the house of the debtor, seeing that such pledges are taken by the court’s messenger in order to preserve the self respect of the debtor. In this instance, the creditor was allowed into the debtor’s house to look for a suitable pledge.

The Dissenters claim that the passage one may not take for security the lower millstone, nor the upper millstone is juxtaposed to the previous verse on account of “gladden his wife” [: 5], and that it is an allusion to sexual intercourse (in other words, he may not withhold sex) — but this is vacuous inanity. They offer for proof the verse “let my wife grind unto another” [Job 31: 10], which I have already explained. The true meaning is the literal one: It is forbidden for someone to take a millstone as security. The sentence fails to specify its subject, as in “he told Joseph” [Genesis 48: 1], “she bore her to Levi” [Exodus 26: 59], and many similar instances. In all cases the implicit subject is assumed: “ the speaker spoke to Joseph”, “ the mother bore her to Levi”, etc.

רחים is the lower,