Numbers 21:27

But after a few words it is reported concerning that very city: "For this reason," he says, "the riddlers shall say: come into Heshbon, that the city of Sihon may be built and constructed; for fire went forth from Heshbon and a flame from the city of Sihon, and it devoured as far as Moab." Sihon, as we said, was the king, whose city was Heshbon. Thus, then, the order of the words is to be understood, that these riddlers say: come, that Heshbon, which was the city of Sihon, may be built and constructed. But let us now inquire who these riddlers are. A riddle is a figured saying; riddlers therefore are those who speak figuratively. And who else is there who has spoken in figures except the law and the prophets? For hear how David says: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter propositions from the beginning." But Isaiah too, that the things he wrote are riddles, declares in this manner: "and the words of this book shall be," he says, "like the words of a sealed book; which if they give into the hands of a man who does not know letters and say to him: read, he will say: I do not know letters. But if they give it to one who knows letters, he will say: I cannot read, for it is sealed." Now the book is called sealed for the reason that it is entangled with figures and wrapped up in riddles. These riddlers, then, say: come into Heshbon, that it may be built. That first Heshbon fell, or rather was overturned and burned; another is to be rebuilt. But how this is done, let us show by taking up an example. If you see a Gentile placed in the disgrace of life and in the error of religion, do not hesitate to say of him that here is the city of Heshbon in the kingdom of King Sihon; for the barren and lofty king reigns in his thoughts. If Israel—that is, a son of the Church—approaches this man and applies the darts of the word of God and unsheathes against him the sword of the spirit, and destroys in him all the fortifications of Gentile teachings and burns up the loftinesses of his arguments with the fire of truth, say of this man that the city of Heshbon of Sihon is overthrown. But this man, in whom the teachings of the Gentiles are overthrown, is not straightway left deserted and abandoned. For it is not the discipline of the sons of Israel to leave in ruins the cities that they have destroyed; but when they have undermined and overturned in a man his evil…