6. But when God had signified, that with one plague he would compel the Egyptians to let Hebrews go, he commanded Moses to tell the people that they should have a sacrifice ready, and they should prepare themselves on the tenth day of the month Xanthicus, against the fourteenth, (which month is called by the Egyptians Pharmuth, Nisan by the Hebrews; but the Macedonians call it Xanthicus,) and that he should carry the Hebrews with all they had1. Accordingly, he having got the Hebrews ready for their departure, and having sorted the people into tribes2, he kept them together in one place:

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FOOTNOTES

1 Josephus omits God’s instructions to Moses (Exod. 11.2) to tell the Israelites to borrow vessels of gold and silver from their Egyptian neighbors.

2 Hence, we are given the extra-biblical detail that Moses arranged them in tribes (εἰς φρατρίας), this unit being in Athens a political subdivision of the Greek tribe (φυλή) and originally consisting of a noble family and its dependents who shared in the family cult.