The trunk of a tree, Job 14:8 , or a reproachful name for the idols carved out of it, Jeremiah 2:27; Hosea 4:12 . The stocks in which Paul and Silas were fastened, Acts 16:24 , were an instrument well known in Europe and America until recent times; consisting of two beams, the upper one movable, with grooves between them large enough to receive the ankles of the prisoner. The arms also were sometimes confined. Stocks were frequently erected in market places, that the insults of the populace might be added to the pain of confinement, Job 13:27; Jeremiah 20:2 .