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,
"Silver out of the house of Baal-berith"  (Judges 9:4).  The principal establishment in Shechem at this time was this stronghold including a tower and temple of Baal-berith, indicating that, "Shechem was a Canaanite city and that the mother and family of Abimelech were Canaanites."[6]  What a fatal mistake it had been for Gideon to father a son by a concubine who, under the rules for certain classes of concubines, reared him in a pagan environment with no knowledge whatever of God. In our own times, parents who rear their children without true spiritual and religious education are committing the same disastrous mistake.