It is hard to make a choice of the most beautiful passage in a book
which is so gemmed with beautiful passages, as the Bible; but it is
certain that not many things within its lids may take rank above the
exquisite story of Joseph. Who taught those ancient writers their
simplicity of language, their felicity of expression, their pathos, and,
above all, their faculty of sinking themselves entirely out of sight of
the reader and making the narrative stand out alone and seem to tell
itself? Shakespeare is always present when one reads his book; Macaulay
is present when we follow the march of his stately sentences; but the
Old Testament writers are hidden from view.