Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(sticks). Tree-trunks (Job 14:8); idols (Jer. 2:27); instruments of punishment made of beams of wood which closed over the arms or ankles (Job 13:27; 33:11; Jer. 20:2; Acts 16:24).
Concise Bible Dictionary:
Stocks
Various words are used for these instruments of punishment.
1. mahpecheth, a wooden frame in which the feet, hands, and neck of a person were so fastened that his body was kept bent. Jeremiah was subjected to this punishment (Jer. 20:2-3).
2. sad, stocks in which the feet were shut up (Job 13:27; Job 33:11; Acts 16:24—ξύλον).
3. tsinoq, stocks which confined the hands and the feet (Jer. 29:26).
4. ekes, “a fetter or ancle-band” (Prov. 7:22).
From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Acts 16:24. Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
Some would understand by ξυλον “stocks,” simply a bar of wood to which the feet of the prisoner were chained. Others suppose the instrument to have corresponded to the modern stocks, consisting of a frame of wood in which the two feet, separated far apart, were placed. There were some ancient stocks in which were five holes for fastening feet, hands, and head.
In Ceylon, at the present day, an instrument similar to this is used, only the head is allowed to be free.
The use of the stocks is very ancient. See Job 13:27.
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