The International Torah - Parshat Ki Tavo

(1) Moses and the elders of Israel charged the people, saying: Observe all the Commandment that I command you this day. (2) As soon as you have crossed the Jordan into the land that the Eternal your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones. Coat them with plaster (3) and inscribe upon them all the words of this Torah. When you cross over to enter the land that The Eternal your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Eternal, the God of your fathers, promised you— (4) upon crossing the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, about which I charge you this day, here on Mount Eval, and coat them with plaster. (5) There, too, you shall build an altar to the Eternal your God, an altar of stones. Do not wield an iron tool over them; (6) you must build the altar of The Eternal your God of unhewn stones. You shall offer on it burnt offerings to The Eternal your God, (7) and you shall sacrifice there offerings of well-being and eat them, rejoicing before The Eternal your God. (8) And on those stones you shall inscribe every word of this Torah, well-expounded.

(22) And if you make for Me an altar of stones, do not build it of hewn stones; for by wielding your sword upon them you have profaned them.

well-expounded - in seventy languages

(1) These are the words that Moses addressed to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan.—Through the wilderness, in the Aravah near Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Lavan, Hazerot, and Di-zahab, (2) it is eleven days from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by the Mount Seir route.— (3) It was in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, that Moses addressed the Israelites in accordance with the instructions that The Eternal had given him for them, (4) after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtarot and Edrei. (5) On the other side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to expound this Torah.

to expound this Torah - he explained it to them in the seventy languages

he explained it to them in the seventy languages - ...Rabbi Eliezer Mizrahi learns this from the connection to "well expounded" Parshat Ki Tavo (27:8). And if we unroll the word 'well' - ה', ה"י, הי"ט, היט"ב - it adds up to 70.

A look at Rashi, based on Tanchuma, ‎shows us that Moses translated the Torah into 70 languages. But why ‎did Moses find it necessary to ‎translate the Torah into all the known languages at the time?

It is an accepted principle that on occasion the Torah has some ‎words in Aramaic, such as ‎יגר סהדותא‎, yagar sahaduta [“the ‎stone of witness,” whereas Jacob named the very same heap of ‎stones ‎גלעד‎, its Hebrew equivalent in Gen. 31:47.] And so, too, with all languages of the world. For ‎example the word ‎טוטפות‎, totafot - tot means 'two' in Caspian and fot means 'two' in African (see Talmud Zevahim 37b). And similarly, hen in Greek means 'one.' And so it is that all the other languages from foreign nations are written into the Torah.

One of the reasons for this is that the language of every nation is the life-force of that nation. Hebrew, the Holy Tongue, is the distinct language of Israel. And indeed, they heard first the Torah at Mount Sinai in the Holy Tongue. But the Holy Blessed One, who sees from beginning to end, saw that Israel would have to be in exile, and so for this reason wrote into the Torah the languages of all nations. So that, through this, they would have the ability to take hold of the life-force of each one, through the language of the Holy Torah, so that Israel will be able to find resilience in exile.

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(64) The Eternal will scatter you among all the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, whom neither you nor your ancestors have experienced. (65) Yet even among those nations you shall find no peace, nor shall your foot find a place to rest. The Eternal will give you there an anguished heart and eyes that pine and a despondent spirit. (66) The life you face shall be precarious; you shall be in terror, night and day, with no assurance of survival.