Because these sources were produced by men who held opposing views about such institutions as the establishment of the monarchy, we can see why conflicting accounts of the same event are found side by side in the Old Testament history. In some instances, two different accounts are presented without any attempt to reconcile the disagreements. At other times, explanatory passages inserted by editors and copyists in an attempt to harmonize the accounts with one another are detectable. Despite these conflicts, throughout this history the underlying conception of a moral order characterizes the historical process. This moral order in the historic process illustrates what the Hebrew writers believed to be the divine element in history. Obedience to Yahweh's commands was certain to cause consequences quite different from the ones that were sure to follow disobedience of these same commands. To the prophetic historians, either obeying or disobeying Yahweh's directives meant choosing between life and death, respectively.
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