Hosea 4:12 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

Their stocks. — Blocks of wood fashioned into idols (Heb., his wood, the collective singular being maintained).

Their staff. — Cyril regarded this as referring to divinations by means of rods (ῥαβδομαντεία), which were placed upright, and after the repetition of incantations, allowed to fall, the forecast of the future being interpreted from the manner in which they fell. But perhaps the “staff” may refer, like the “stocks,” to the idol itself. The Canaanite goddess Asherah was worshipped under this form.

Hosea 4:12

12 My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.