1 "Then we turned, and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, as YHVH told me; and for many days we went about Mount Se'ir.
2 Then YHVH said to me,
3 'You have been going about this mountain country long enough; turn northward.
4 And command the people, You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren the sons of Esau, who live in Se'ir; and they will be afraid of you. So take good heed;
5 do not contend with them; for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Se'ir to Esau as a possession.
Esau means rough and has to do with the physical level of consciousness.
6 You shall purchase food from them for money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water of them for money, that you may drink.
7 For YHVH, your god, has blessed you in all the work of your hands; he knows your going through this great wilderness; these forty years YHVH, your god, has been with you; you have lacked nothing.'
8 So we went on, away from our brethren the sons of Esau who live in Se'ir, away from the Arabah road from Elath and E'zion-ge'ber. "And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab.
9 And YHVH said to me, 'Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot for a possession.'
Lot means darkened, and hidden. It represents the unenlightened consciousness which is still in darkness. These levels of consciousness must be left behind, or passed through, if we are to achieve our spiritual goals.
10 (The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim;
11 like the Anakim they are also known as Reph'aim, but the Moabites call them Emim.
12 The Horites also lived in Se'ir formerly, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them, and destroyed them from before them, and settled in their stead; as Israel did to the land of their possession, which YHVH gave to them.)
13 'Now rise up, and go over the brook Zered.' So we went over the brook Zered.
14 And the time from our leaving Ka'desh-bar'nea until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as YHVH had sworn to them.
Thirty-eight is a repetition of the same symbolic meaning as 11. For 3+8=11. It is the number of adepthood of the self and is the real meaning of the journey from Kadesh-bernea which means place of holiness, to Zered which means exuberant growth. This is telling us that the path of adepthood is based on a holy foundation and results in an abundant increase in consciousness only after we have eliminated the "men of war" or the thoughts and feelings which are antagonistic to love.
15 For indeed the hand of YHVH was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished.
16 "So when all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people,
17 YHVH said to me,
18 'This day you are to pass over the boundary of Moab at Ar;
19 and when you approach the frontier of the sons of Ammon, do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession.'
20 (That also is known as a land of Reph'aim; Reph'aim formerly lived there, but the Ammonites call them Zamzum'mim,
21 a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but YHVH destroyed them before them; and they dispossessed them, and settled in their stead;
22 as he did for the sons of Esau, who live in Se'ir, when he destroyed the Horites before them, and they dispossessed them, and settled in their stead even to this day.