NOTES for Jdg 9:23-57

Abimelech's defeat was predetermined by his own crimes during his struggle for power. Like many before and after him, he believed that the end justified the means. But whatever is obtained at a sinful price, at the price of innocent bloodshed, is bound to collapse. Abimelech treacherously killed his brothers, and now the same inhabitants of Shechem who made him king have turned against him. As he destroys Shechem, Abimelech thinks he is taking revenge on apostates, but in reality the inhabitants of Shechem are receiving retribution for their complicity in Abimelech's lawless deeds.

It is significant that after Abimelech's death his undertaking did not endure: the Israelites “went each to his own place,” and for a long time the people's leaders were once again not kings but judges.