See opening of the letters of Abimelech of Tyre, Bezold's Oriental Diplomacy, Nos.
The story of the events at the court of Abimelech (xxvi.) finds a parallel in the now disjointed xx., xxi.
The god of the Canaanite city was Baal-Berith: his temple was destroyed when Abimelech quelled the rising of his fickle subjects (Jud.
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But his success was short-lived, and the subsequent discord between Abimelech and the Shechemites was regarded as a just reward for his atrocious massacre.
On the death of Gideon, Abimelech set himself to assert the authority which his father had earned, and through the influence of his mother's clan won over the citizens of Shechem.
The mother of Abimelech the son of Gideon was a Shechemite, and Shechem was the centre of his short-lived kingdom (Jud.