Robert Alter describes the book of Deuteronomy as presenting “Moses’ valedictory address, which he delivers across the Jordan from the promised land just before his death, as the people assembled before him are poised to cross the river into the land. It comprises a series of speeches, discourses, or, as some scholars actually call them, sermons.”17 Its prose is majestic and powerful, making it the “most sustained deployment of rhetoric in the Bible.”