[5] I will begin with what is necessarily the right place to begin. Moses was by race a Chaldean, but was born and reared in Egypt, as his ancestors had migrated thither to seek food with their whole households, in consequence of the long famine under which Babylon and the neighbouring populations were suffering. Egypt is a land rich in plains, with deep soil, and very productive of all that human nature needs,
[6] and particularly of corn. For the river of this country, in the height of summer, when other streams, whether winter torrents or spring-fed, are said to dwindle, rises and overflows, and its flood makes a lake of the fields which need no rain but every year bear a plentiful crop of good produce of every kind, if not prevented by some visitation of the wrath of God to punish the prevailing impiety of the inhabitants.
[7] He had for his father and mother the best of their contemporaries, members of the same tribe, though with them mutual affection was a stronger tie than family connexions. He was seventh in descent from the first settler, who became the founder of the whole Jewish nation.