At the end of chapter Judges 8:1–35, when Gideon died, the Israelites turned again to the Baals and whored after them. This was a continuation of what they had already started while Gideon was alive, when they whored after an ephod that he had set up in Ophrah. So now we expect the Lord to send another foreign enemy to oppress his people. But he does not do so. Instead, the oppression now comes from within the covenant community itself.
1 Abimélec, fils de Jerubbaal, se rendit à Sichem vers les frères de sa mère, et voici comment il leur parla, ainsi qu'à toute la famille de la maison du père de sa mère: