In 3 Nephi 3:12 we find the prophetic phrase, "that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins [the loins of Joseph], and also that which shall be written by the fruit of the loins of Judah, shall grow together." A footnote in 2 Nephi 3:12 refers the reader to Ezekiel 37:15-20, which corroborates this prophecy:
"The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand. (Ezekiel 37:15-17)
According to an article by Keith Meservy, many critics have long frowned upon the Latter-day Saint interpretation of sticks in Ezekiel's prophecy. They insist that sticks, either scrolls or tallies, do not make scriptures, and that, even if they do, Latter-day Saints are taking the prophecy out of context: chapter 37 as a whole discuses the gathering of Israel, not books of scripture. They suggest that stick really represents a scepter, a tribe, or one of the divided kingdoms of Judah or Israel.
However, in 1948, as he read two ancient Babylonian texts, San Nicolo discovered that scribes were filling their tablets with wax. He remembered that Greeks and Romans filled writing boards with wax and then wrote on their surfaces. Since Babylonians were filling boards with wax, he theorized that they must also have been using wax writing boards.
Five years later, archaeologist Max Mallowan discovered a set of sixteen hinged wax writing boards in Assyria that looked strikingly like Greek and Roman writing boards. The cuneiform inscription on the cover board identified it as an is leu (wooden tablet).
Having this as a tangible example, scholars recognized many examples of writing boards in use on the bas-relief sculpture of Assyrian palaces. It became abundantly clear that a previously unknown method of making records was commonly used in ancient Mesopotamia. From this it is also clear that Ezekiel and his fellow Jewish captives lived in a world where scribes typically wrote on wax writing boards. . . . In Ezekiel 37:17, it tells us that, having written on his boards, Ezekiel joined "them one to another into one stick [board]" and they became one in his hand. This joining action was typical of scribes who wrote on boards. . . . Ezekiel identified the owner of each board by writing a cover inscription on it. Once again, he was doing what scribes normally did to their boards. Sargon, for example, put an inscription on the cover of his sixteen-board set to show that it belonged to him, what its contents were, and that it was placed in his palace at Dur-Sharrukin. Ezekiel's inscriptions identified Judah and Joseph as the owners of each of the two boards. The Hebrew preposition le [to/for] in front of the names Judah and Joseph shows to whom each of these boards belonged.
Thus we might better translate the inscriptions to show this possession by putting the words "(belonging) to" before each name: "(Belonging) to Judah, and (belonging) to the children of Israel his companions," and "(Belonging) to Joseph, the [board of Ephraim], and (belonging) to all the house of Israel his companions" (v. 16). [Keith Meservy, "Ezekiel's Sticks and the Gathering of Israel," in The Ensign, February 1987, pp. 4-23] [See the commentary on 3 Nephi 15:16-17; 15:21]
2 Nephi 3:12 That which shall be written . . . shall grow together ([Illustration]): Wooden tablets, called sticks [Old Testament Student Manual Religion 302, p. 283]
2 Nephi 3:12 That which shall be written . . . shall grow together ([Illustration]): The discovery in 1953 of these writing boards from biblical Calah in Mesopotamia altered the thinking of scholars about how Middle Eastern cultures made records. Wooden tablets filled with wax represent the "earliest known form of ancient books" and help us understand an important prophecy of Ezekiel foretelling the uniting of the Bible and Book of Mormon. [Keith Meservy, "Ezekiel's Sticks and the Gathering of Israel," in The Ensign, February 1987, p. 4]
2 Nephi 3:12 That which shall be written . . . shall grow together ([Illustration]): A diagram of the hinged writing boards, showing their appearance when closed. [Keith H. Meservy, "Ezekiel's 'Sticks'," in The Ensign, September 1977, p. 25]
2 Nephi 3:12 (Ezekiel 37:17) Join them one to another into one stick [Ezekiel] ([Illustration]): Ezekiel. Artist: Robert Barrett. It now seems clear that the prophet Ezekiel was referring to wax writing boards in his prophecy about the "sticks" of Judah and Joseph. Wooden or ivory boards were filled with wax, inscribed with a stylus, then bound together to protect the writing surfaces, making them "one in the hand' of the scribe. The most recent discovery, as well as the oldest known example of wax writing boards, dating from the 14th century B.C. was found in a shipwreck off the southwestern coast of modern Turkey. This discovery was reported at the November 1986 annual meeting of the American School of Oriental Research. [Keith Meservy, "Ezekiel's Sticks and the Gathering of Israel," The Ensign, February 1987, p. 5]
2 Nephi 3:12 (Ezekiel 37:17) Join them one to another into one stick ([Illustration]): Reconstructed Mesopotamian Writing Tablets. Photo: Keith Meservy from British Museum, London. These writings tablets--"sticks"--still contain some of their beeswax and arsenic sulphide filling. The arsenic kept the wax pliable, and gave it a bright yellow color; and the writing is so small and careful that the thirty writing surfaces on the whole combined set of tablets could have contained 7,500 lines of text. [Keith H. Meservy, "Ezekiel's 'Sticks'," The Ensign, September 1977, p. 27]
2 Nephi 3:12 That which shall be written . . . shall grow together ([Illustration]): The Bible and the Book of Mormon Testify of Christ. The writings of Judah and the writings of Joseph would "grow together." Artist: Greg K. Olsen. [Thomas R. Valletta ed., The Book of Mormon for Latter-day Saint Families, 1999, p. 80]