For the source text click/tap here: Bava Batra 78
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A digression and explanation of the parables of Bilaam are cited in our daf: from Numbers 21:27–28
“Therefore they that speak in parables [hamoshlim] say: Come to Heshbon! Let the city [ir] of Sihon be built and established! For a fire is gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon; it has devoured Ar of Moab, the lords of the high places of Arnon”
Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmaini quotes Rabbi Yochanan, who explains the verses recorded as Bilam’s proclamation, which led Sichon the king of the Emorim to triumph over Moav, allegorically:
We explore the use of parables in this text and other oracles of Bilaam.