Conquering Sichon

The incident of conquering Sichon came about after they had conquered מואב. Israel was not supposed to attack מואב, because they descended from Lot. But once they were out of the picture, Sichon was able to be taken over. The city that was conquered was called חשבון. The story tellers predicted Sichon’s attack of מואב and taking over of חשבון. They did not anticipate Israel’s victory over Sichon. There is a play on words of the words of the story tellers. The Pasuk reads על כן יאמרו המושלים בואו חשבון, the מושלים were story tellers who would give a משל. They said to come to חשבון. The homiletic interpretation was that the מושלים referred to those who rule their Yeitzer. And the חשבון referred to a חשבון הנפש, of doing serious soul searching. The end of the Pasuk hints that one who does so, will have prepared himself for this world and the next. So much is learned from an incident that seems to have been written in code.