The notice that in those days Israel had no king is the narrator’s commentary on this chapter. It strongly suggests and supports the notion that the author is not pro-monarchy. For this chapter presents to us a tribe that abandons the command of the Lord (to take its allotted territory), has no king involved in the affair, and yet achieves success. This account, recorded in the days of the monarchy, illustrates that already before the kings that led Israel into battle and idolatry, the nation did these things all on their own.1 The monarchy would not be the solution to an issue that was present already in the time of the judges.
1 In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the people of Dan was seeking for itself an inheritance to dwell in, for until then no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them.