Why the Ballad-Singers Say Come to Heshbon and Rebuild Sihon's City

"Therefore the proverbialists say: Come to Heshbon" (Numbers 21:27). Because Sihon took Heshbon from the hand of the king of Moab, and Israel took from the hand of Sihon Heshbon and everything that he had taken from Moab. Therefore our Sages, of blessed memory, said theirs to Israel, when they ruled over the land: "Come to Heshbon and build it" (Numbers 21:27), for it is the city of Sihon — and men of war who are harsher than the men of war of Heshbon: "a flame consumed Ar of Moab, the lords of the high places of Arnon" (Numbers 21:28).