Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother's brothers, and spoke with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying,
"The men of Shechem ... made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar that was in Shechem"  (Judges 9:6).  By thus engineering his coronation to take place at that famous oak tree which had figured so prominently in previous Israelite history, he contrived, "The defilement of a great covenant sanctuary,"[8] thus indicating his contempt for all the sacred traditions of Israel.  This so-called "kingdom" of Abimelech, however, was a very limited thing.  "It hardly extended beyond western Manasseh.[9] Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that Abimelech "ruled over all Israel."