Judges 9:40
And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and many were overthrown and wounded, even unto the entering of the gate. And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and many were overthrown and wounded, even unto the entering of the gate.
Abimelech chased Gaal, who fled before him, and many were overthrown and wounded all the way to the entering of the gate. Abimelech was the son of Gideon's maidservant, and he had Gideon's sons, his own brothers, slain so that he might become ruler. Shechem, the scene of these events, was a very ancient place where Jacob stopped when he returned from Padan-aram to Canaan.
The fighting belonged to Abimelech's violent campaign against those who rebelled against him, forming part of his utter destruction of Shechem. In the setting of Jotham's parable, this violence was part of the judgment that followed Shechem's choice of Abimelech as ruler, a man who had murdered his brothers. The surrounding events display his cruelty and the retribution that ultimately brought his rule to an end.