One of the basic
equipment items in the Talmudic age, namely the writing tablet (לוח) is presumed by TJ
to have existed in Biblical times. Hence TJ’s translation of עץ (“stick”) in Ezek.
37:16 f. and v. 20a is consistently לוחא (“writing tablet”), though this rendering is hardly
suitable in this context (It is true that Ezekiel is told to write on the עץ [v. 16]. But the
context indicates that this was no writing tablet, but a wooden stick). (Leivy
Smolar and Moses Aberbach, Studies in Targum Jonathan to the Prophets [The
Library of Biblical Studies; New York: KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 1983], 103)
