Acts 16:24

Inner prison. Roman prisons often had an outer and an inner section. In the first was the guardroom, where light and air could enter. Beyond this lay the inner prison, where, when the door was shut, light and air were excluded. Conditions in such a cell were fearful, and inflicted terrible punishment upon the prisoner.

Stocks. Gr. xulon, “wood,” “timber.” In the NT, xulon is also used for “tree” (Luke 23:31; Rev. 2:7; 22:2, 14), for articles made from trees, such as “gibbet,” or “cross” (Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; Gal. 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24), and for “staves,” or “clubs” (Matt. 26:47; etc.). Here the word refers to the stocks, an installment of torture, a wooden frame with holes into which head and feet and hands were thrust, thus placing the prisoner in a most uncomfortable position. From Job 13:27; 33:11 it appears that such punishment was well known at a very early period in the East. With Paul and Silas the feet only were fastened, and the rest of the body was left lying on the ground, a particularly agonizing position for men punished as the apostles had been.