The nether or the upper mill-stone - Small hand-mills which can be worked by a single person were formerly in use among the Jews, and are still used in many parts of the East. As therefore the day's meal was generally ground for each day, they keeping no stock beforehand, hence they were forbidden to take either of the stones to pledge, because in such a case the family must be without bread. On this account the text terms the millstone the man's life.

shall take Small hand-mills, which ground at one time only a sufficient quantity for 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, 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

Exodus 22:26,27 If you at all take your neighbor's raiment to pledge, you shall deliver it to him by that the sun goes down...

Revelation 18:22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in you; and no craftsman...

life

Deuteronomy 20:19 When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it...

Genesis 44:30 Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the lad be not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life;

Luke 12:15 And he said to them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness...

On the Journey to Jerusalem - Departure from Ephraim by Way of Samaria and Galilee - Healing of Ten Lepers - Prophetic Discourse of the Coming
The brief time of rest and quiet converse with His disciples in the retirement of Ephraim was past, and the Saviour of men prepared for His last journey to Jerusalem. All the three Synoptic Gospels mark this, although with varying details. [4875] From the mention of Galilee by St. Matthew, and by St. Luke of Samaria and Galilee - or more correctly, between (along the frontiers of) Samaria and Galilee,' we may conjecture that, on leaving Ephraim, Christ made a very brief detour along the northern …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah