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.
My people ask counsel at their stocks - literally, on their stocks, depending on them, wholly and habitually. Instances of their understanding ("heart") being 'taken away.'
Stocks - wooden idols (Jeremiah 2:27; Habakkuk 2:19).
And their staff declareth unto them - "staff," alluding to divination by rods (notes, Ezekiel 21:21-22). The diviner, says Rosenmuller, threw a rod from him, which was stripped of its bark on one side, not on the other: if the bare side turned uppermost, it was a good omen; if the side with the bark, it was a bad omen. The Arabs used two rods, the one marked God bids, the other, God forbids; whichever came out first, in drawing them out of a case, gave the omen for or against an undertaking.
Declareth - i:e., is consulted to inform them of future events.
For the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err - a general disposition on the part of all toward idolatry, instilled, doubtless, into their heart, already so inclined, by an evil spirit from Satan, whose special province it is to foster whoredom and its kindred sins, covetousness and idolatry (Hosea 5:4).
Err - go astray from the true God.
And they have gone a whoring from under their God - they have gone away from God, under whom they were, as a wife is under the dominion of her husband.