Fortune, Changes Of

The vicissitudes — the sudden reversals that take a man from prison to throne, from throne to madness, from gallows-builder to gallows — run through scripture as a recurring shape. The lives gathered here do not make the same point twice; together they trace what it means that "Yahweh makes poor, and makes rich: He brings low, he also lifts up" (1 Sa 2:7), and that "he changes the times and the seasons; he removes kings, and sets up kings" (Da 2:21).

Joseph: From Pit to Throne

Joseph's life is the paradigm vicissitude. He goes down twice and up twice. The first descent is the pit and the slave-trade: "And there passed by Midianites, merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty [shekels of] silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt" (Gen 37:28). The second is the prison after Potiphar's wife: "And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison" (Gen 39:20). The reversal comes by dream-interpretation: "Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in to Pharaoh" (Gen 41:14). The Egyptian throne-grant is total — "you will be over my house, and according to your mouth will all my people be ruled: I will be greater than you only in the throne" (Gen 41:40), "See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt" (Gen 41:41) — and the providential reading is Joseph's own: "it wasn't you⁺ who sent me here, but God: and he has made me 'Father of Pharaoh,' and 'Lord of All His House,' and 'Ruler Over All The Land of Egypt'" (Gen 45:8). The Maccabean retrospect captures the full arc in a line: "Joseph in the time of his distress kept the commandment, And he was made lord of Egypt" (1 Macc 2:53).

Pharaoh's Cupbearer and Baker

The same prison holds two officials whose vicissitudes go in opposite directions on the same day: "And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast to all his slaves: and he lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his slaves. And he restored the chief cupbearer to be his cupbearer again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand: but he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them" (Gen 40:20-22). One man rises out of the dungeon to serve the cup again; the other is hanged. The vicissitude works in both directions, and the interpretation given in the prison stands.

David: From Sheepfold to Zion

David's rise is the same shape as Joseph's, framed differently. He begins behind the flock: "Your slave was shepherding his father's sheep" (1 Sa 17:34). He is anointed in obscurity: "Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on David from that day forward and onward" (1 Sa 16:13). He ends up in the captured citadel: "Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David" (2 Sa 5:7). The Sirach summary holds the whole rise together: "Yahweh put away his transgression, And lifted up his horn forever. And he gave him the decree of the kingdom, And established his throne over Israel" (Sir 47:11).

Jeroboam: Foreman, King, Struck Down

Jeroboam's life moves up twice and ends down. He starts as Solomon's labor-overseer — "And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor; and Solomon saw the young man that he was industrious, and he gave him charge over all the labor of the house of Joseph" (1 Ki 11:28). When the kingdom splits he is recalled and crowned: "when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, that they sent and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel" (1 Ki 12:20). The closing reversal is divine: "Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in the days of Abijah: and Yahweh struck him, and he died" (2 Ch 13:20).

Esther and Mordecai: The Orphan and the Gate-Sitter

Esther's rise begins as orphan-care: "And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maiden had a beautiful body and face; and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter" (Es 2:7). Mordecai's rise comes after an earlier promotion of his enemy: "King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him" (Es 3:1). The pivot in the middle of the book turns Haman into Mordecai's escort: "Then Haman took the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and caused him to ride through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus it will be done to the man whom the king delights to honor" (Es 6:11). The gallows Haman built does its own reversal: "Look also at the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king... And the king said, Hang him on it" (Es 7:9), "So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's wrath was pacified" (Es 7:10). Mordecai's own end-state is the inverse of Haman's earlier promotion: "Mordecai went forth from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a robe of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan shouted and was glad" (Es 8:15); "Mordecai the Jew was next to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews" (Es 10:3).

Job: From Wholeness to Loss to Doubled

Job's reversal is the steepest collapse and the most explicit restoration. The losses arrive in series: "the Sabeans fell [on them], and took them away" (Job 1:15); the messenger reports "there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead" (Job 1:19). The restoration is by name and by measure: "Yahweh turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his companions: and Yahweh gave Job twice as much as he had before" (Job 42:10).

Daniel: From Captive to Ruler, and Nebuchadnezzar's Madness

Daniel's vicissitudes go up. After the dream interpretation: "the king made Daniel great, and gave him many great gifts, and made him to rule over the whole province of Babylon, and to be chief governor over all the wise men of Babylon" (Da 2:48). After the writing on the wall: "Then Belshazzar commanded, and they clothed Daniel with purple, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom" (Da 5:29). The Maccabean line keeps the lions episode as its summary vicissitude: "Daniel in his innocency Was delivered out of the mouth of the lions" (1 Macc 2:60). The reversal works against the king who exalts himself: "The same hour was the thing fulfilled on Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and ate grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until his hair was grown like eagles' [feathers], and his nails like birds' [claws]" (Da 4:33).

The Source of the Reversals

The lives differ; the causal frame does not. Hannah's song states it bluntly: "Yahweh makes poor, and makes rich: He brings low, he also lifts up" (1 Sa 2:7). Daniel says it again, more impersonally: "he changes the times and the seasons; he removes kings, and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who have understanding" (Da 2:21). The vicissitude is not the accident — it is the divine work that fastens these biographies together.