And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

Genesis 7:19-20, KJV

In my last post I illustrated how the Flood was directed like a military operation, from the mustering of the waters, assaulting the enemy from two approaches, and ultimately dominating humankind and his military fortresses high in the mountains. There’s a couple of reasons this theory holds water (pardon the pun) and I’ll continue some of those analogies, though in this post we’re going to be getting much deeper (again, pardon me).

The Chiasm

This section of the Flood story is a little different because it carries a few obvious poetic chiasms, although the chiasm is a significant illustration of the Noah tract such as this earlier gem). As a reminder, a chiasm sandwiches an illustrative point between a few more menial sentences that state the same thing. So, for our keynote text, the chiasm is…

And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.

fifteen cubits 

upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

… which makes the meat of our chiasm sandwich “fifteen cubits“.

Another thing to consider is that we don’t really need the measurement to understand the story’s main point. If we just read – twice – that the waters completely covered the mountains (seemingly that no man could survive), why would it be necessary to precisely measure the depth of the flood?

I love these types of situations because I treat them like hidden revelations. This is like looking for buried treasure, and discovering even more proof of God’s prophetic signature.

But first, I don’t want to mislead anyone. Heights and measurements derived from Scripture do offer some practical value; they allow us to make scalable drawings or models of the Temple, arks, or giants like Goliath. In this case, the measurements suggest the Ark may have sunk to half her height (the Ark was 30 cubits tall). This could also be an explanation of how the waters were at least fifteen cubits higher than the mountain peaks (say, if the mountains never touched the bottom of the Ark it would be logical to assume so). It also implies that men could presumably not have been taller than fifteen cubits (which some measure to about 23 feet). I know that seems irrelevant to mention, but I will tell you I’ve met disciples of a certain denomination who believed the antediluvian peoples were ten stories tall (!). So, biblical measurements do have a practical use.

But measurements are even more exciting because they carry prophetic undertones, especially when they’re not exactly needed to establish a point of significance…. and extra especially when they’re buried amid a chiasm.

Here’s why I believe the fifteen cubits is one of those true revelatory gems.

The View from the Fifteenth Generation

We must realize, this is not the first time the earth was covered with water. If we recall the story of Creation, the earth was once covered with water until the dry land appeared (ref. Genesis 1:9-10). In fact, the chosen linguistics style of the Noah story remind me of one big rewind to Creation – with the animals appearing “male and female” and passing before Noah like they passed before Adam (cf. Gen. 2:19, 7:9). God had been rewinding us to the Creation story for several verses up to this point!

We must also realize the word for cubit (ammah) is derived from the same root as mother (em). So, prophetically speaking, we should consider the allusion “fifteen mothers.”

So, what would happen if we allowed ourselves to be rewound and counted “fifteen mothers upward” from the Creation story? If the fifteenth generation in any way relates to the Flood and – specifically how ‘the waters covered the mountains under the whole of heaven’ – perhaps we’ll have found our gem.

When we DO count fifteen mothers from Eve, we arrive at the generation of Peleg, who was so-named “because in his time the earth was divided.” (Genesis 10:25) The other major notable from Peleg’s fifteenth-from-Eve generation is Nimrod; these were the grandsons of Shem and Ham, respectively (cf. Gen. 10:6, 8; 11:10, 16). The division denoting Peleg’s is an obvious reference to what transpired at the beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom at Bavel, in the land of Shinar (Gen 10:10).

The events of Genesis 11:1-9 are hard to understand (and we will not delve into that now). However, if we read about “the Tower of Babel” I suggest to you the draw of a tower that “reached to the heavens” might be better understood in the context of the Great Flood. If their were sinister minds who truly wanted to rule the whole world, the best mechanism they had at their disposal was fear – and that fear was a Great flood that would reach above the mountains. There’s no greater mechanism for domination than the illusion of safety – even if safety appeared as a mighty tower built to dwarf the mountains.

I wholeheartedly invite you to study the events of the Tower of Babel with the journey of Noah – and to look for parallels between them. I’m sure you will discover other hidden revelations like this gem that’s buried in the pages of the Flood.

And of course, I will delve into those revelations myself someday, Lord willing!