Each of the five tribes claims to have been the victorious attacker. Each recalls the slaughter with relish. Each believes it was ordained by their own god as righteous vengeance, because of the unholy practices carried on in the city. Evil must be cleansed with blood, they say. On that day the blood ran like water, so afterwards it must have been very clean.
The five tribes each assert that they were the sole victors in the attack, relishing the details of the massacre. Their narratives emphasize a divine mandate, claiming their gods justified the violence as retribution for the sinful acts occurring in the city. They are united in the belief that the bloodshed was necessary to cleanse the evil that they perceived.
In their recollections, the graphic imagery of blood flowing freely highlights their conviction that such violence was both righteous and ordained. They interpret the horrific events as a necessary purification, suggesting that the aftermath, marked by the extensive loss of life, served to cleanse the land of its perceived impurities.
