Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

STOCKS

Instruments for confining and restraining prisoners. Stocks were probably made of wood and were bulky enough to be a real impediment and discomfort to those held in them. Stocks included burdensome neck collars (Jer. 29:36) or blocks into which the feet were inserted to prevent movement (Job 13:27; 33:11), such as those into which Passhur put Jeremiah when he became angered over the prophet’s temple sermon (Jer. 20:2-3; cf. 29:26). A variation of stocks was a kind of tinkling ornament placed on fools to correct them (Prov. 7:22; cf. KJV). The purpose of the device was to give discomfort to the victim by distorting or twisting the body unnaturally. Some English Bibles translate Heb. ʿēṣ (“wood”) as “stocks,” when it really is part of a technical phrase, “stones and trees,” connected with fertility cults (e.g., Jer. 2:27; 3:9; Hab. 2:19). In Philippi, Paul and Silas were put into stocks (Acts 16:24), which may have been made of a wooden beam with five sets of holes for spreading the legs and causing variable degrees of pain.

Richard A. Spencer

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

STOCKS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)