The two statements provided by the narrator in Judges 9:23–24 and Judges 9:56–57 point to retribution as the thematic key to the story as a whole.1 Although the issue of kingship is prominent in this chapter, it is the matter of retribution that drives the narrative.
1 Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s relatives and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother’s family,