Saying to a stock... — The “stock” and the “stone” represent respectively the images of wood and marble. In Hebrew the latter word is feminine, and thus determines the parts assigned to them in the figurative parentage.
To a stock, Thou art my father. — Literally, to a tree. The words seem as if they were an actual quotation from the hymns of the idolatrous ritual.
In the time of their trouble. — So in Hosea (Hosea 2:3) it is the discipline of suffering that leads the adulterous wife to repentance. In times of trouble and dismay those who had before turned their backs on Jehovah shall seek Him with outstretched hands, and the cry for help. The prophet half implies that then it maybe too late till chastisement has done its perfect work.