Critics of the Book of Mormon insist there is no biblical backing for the Book of Mormon and that we misinterpret Ezekiel 37:16-17:

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.

Using the following scriptures, the critics’ line of logic goes something like this: The scripture at Ezekiel 37:16-17 is used by Mormons to prove their contention that the Bible and the Book of Mormon were foretold in prophecy. They claim that the two sticks about which the prophet Ezekiel speaks represent these two books. But the sticks in Ezekiel’s prophecy have no reference to books, and this is indicated by Ezekiel himself. He designated one stick for Judah and the other one as “the stick of Ephraim.” The tribe of Ephraim descended from Joseph and became the head of the ten tribes that broke away shortly following the death of King Solomon in the days of King Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. Because of this headship the name Ephraim came to be applied to the ten-tribe group, the Kingdom of Israel. After the release of the Jews (tribe of Judah) from captivity in Babylon, they were effectively reunited with the ten tribes, including the Levites. This reunion of the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel was what Ezekiel foretold when he spoke of the two sticks’ becoming one stick. So the Bible lends no support to the claim that some other religious book is of equal authority to it.

We disagree. In these verses, the word “stick” has reference to two books, the book of Judah (the Bible) and the book of Ephraim (the Book of Mormon). In those days books were written on long scrolls of parchment, which were then rolled on a stick (Jeremiah 36:2). In this passage, the “son of man” was commanded to write upon both of these books or sticks (Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976], 98).

Dr. Hugh Nibley tells of an ancient technique for entering into a binding agreement or contract:

Very early, strips of parchment or cloth were attached to sticks and wrapped around them, since there was not room enough on a stick for writing a lengthy contract. This was the origin of the Jewish scroll wrapped around a staff resembling a scepter. The original tally-stick was a staff on which the contract and names of the contracting parties were written; the staff was then split down the middle and one half, the “stock,” was kept by one of the parties, while the other, “the bill,” was held by the other. When the time came to settle the contact the two parties would bring their sticks together in the presence of the king, and if they matched perfectly, it was plain that neither party had attempted to tinker with the document, and the two would then be bound with a string in the king’s hand and laid away in the archives. The Bar-Kochba cave has now produced twenty-three examples of this technique, and this is another score for the Book of Mormon, which claims to be that very “stick of Ephraim” which in the last days would be joined to the “stick of Judah” so that the two would come together “and they shall be one stick in my hand” (Ezekiel 37:19). The word of the Lord assures us that it is “Moroni whom I have sent unto you to reveal the Book of Mormon, containing the fulness of my everlasting gospel, to whom I have committed the keys of the records of the stick of Ephraim” (Doctrine and Convenants 27:5). There are many “sticks” but no more significant joining of sticks than that now taking place between the Jewish and the Nephite records: “And it shall come to pass that the Jews shall have the words of the Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews; and the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel” (1 Nephi 29:13) (BYU Studies, volume 14 [1973-1974], Number 1–Autumn 1973 125).

The return of the Jews to Judah in 539 B.C. after their release from captivity in Babylon can hardly be said to be a reunion of the tribe of Judah with the ten tribes as will be made clear by a brief review of the events of that time.

In about 931 B.C. King Solomon, who had reigned over all Israel, died, and civil war divided the whole of Israel into the Kingdom of Israel in the north, with its center in Samaria, and the Kingdom of Judah in the south, with its center at Jerusalem. The northern kingdom consisted of ten tribes and was initially led by the rebel military leader Jeroboam. The dominant tribe of the northern kingdom (actually a sub-tribe) was comprised of the descendants of ancient Joseph’s son Ephraim. Thus, these northern ten tribes are often referred to in scripture as simply “Ephraim.” The southern two tribes (Judah and Benjamin) were led originally by Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. We may refer to the southern kingdom as simply “Judah.”

All Israel, both in the north and in the south, did apostatize, and the stage was set for a major scattering of all Israel.

Between 732 and 722 BC the Assyrian army crushed the northern Kingdom of Israel and took captive, according to Josephus, 27,290 of its educated aristocracy and anyone with any leadership ability. These were carried away—back to Assyria. Their fate from that point on is historically undocumented. It is clear that many were scattered and dispersed into several countries. They never again surfaced as an organized kingdom.

The southern kingdom existed precariously until 587 BC when the Babylonians conquered Judah and partially destroyed the city of Jerusalem. The Jews were carried off to exile in Babylon. In the Book of Mormon, the term “Jew” has a specific meaning. It refers to the inhabitants of Judah at the time Lehi left Jerusalem and their descendants, regardless of whether they descended from the tribe of Judah or from some other tribe.

Once in Babylon, instead of being absorbed into Babylonian society, the Jews preserved their religion, their culture, and their sense of national identity by excluding Babylonian influence whenever possible.

In 539 B.C. the Babylonian empire was conquered by Cyrus, King of Persia. Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to their ancestral homes. Many did return and sought to reestablish themselves on the scale of their former power. The temple was rebuilt under the direction of Zerubbabel.

Thus, we learn that the ten tribes were never gathered back to Jerusalem in significant numbers after their captivity by the Assyrians between 732 and 722 BC.

Now back to Ezekiel 37:16-17. The “son of man” is to write upon two books, the stick of Judah and the stick of Ephraim or Joseph. It is useful to examine Joseph’s blessing at the hand of his father, Jacob in Genesis 49:22-26. There we read that “Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall.” That this “well” is an ocean is suggested by the fact that they (the descendants of Joseph) will go “unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills” (verse 26). That this likely refers to the Americas is suggested by the fact that in the Americas is located the longest range of mountains in the world which stretch from the tip of South America to the borders of North America.

Plausibly, then, the “sticks” do refer to two books—the Bible or the stick of Judah and the Book of Mormon or the stick of Ephraim (Joseph). The joining of the two sticks suggests a time when there will be a great gathering of Israel. This gathering happens to be prophesied in Ezekiel 37:21-22: “And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.” This latter prophecy seems to refer to this final dispensation and the great final gathering of Israel that will occur then.