e was a reason for the terrible plight of God's people and that their exile in Babylon had meaning. It did not mean, however, that God was helpless, nor that he had broken the covenant with His people. Indeed, the suffering that had befallen the Israelites was a result of their own disobedience and unfaithfulness (Boadt 374-375).
This doctrine of reward and punishment runs through the entire Deuteronomistic History, as it was the idea communicated by both the Book of Deuteronomy and the prophet Jeremiah (Anderson 111), but the Deuteronomistic Historians endeavored to show that the same archetype could be found throughout the Israelites' time in the promised land (Boadt 375). Thus, to a certain extent, Deuteronomistic History was arranged in such a way as to explain why Israel had suffered and why their punishment had been deserved. But its most important aim was to show "how God acts in the world and how he never becomes unfaithful to his word spoken in the covenant made with Moses and carried on by the prophets whom he has sent" (Boadt 375).
At the same time, the Deuteronomistic History was also highly prophetic. Indeed, God repeatedly makes his promise and keeps his word, but in almost every case, the Isra
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