Verses 21-29
The leaders of the Gileadites explained that their motive was not to use the altar to promote departure from Yahweh or the tabernacle. It was to memorialize the unity of the 12 tribes for future generations. The Israelites had, of course, erected other memorials for this purpose in the Jordan, at Gilgal (ch. 4), and on Mt. Ebal (Joshua 8:30-35). However, God had not ordered the building of this altar as He had the other monuments. He had made provision for preserving the unity of the nation by calling all the males in Israel back to the tabernacle three times each year. He had also done so through the stone memorials and altars that He had ordained.
"The combination of the three names of God-El, the strong one; Elohim, the Supreme Being to be feared; and Jehovah, the truly existing One, the covenant God (Joshua 22:22)-serves to strengthen the invocation of God, as in Psalms 1:1; and this is strengthened still further by the repetition of these three names." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, p. 220.]
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