Judges 9:44
And Abimelech, and the company that was with him, rushed forward, and stood in the entering of the gate of the city: and the two other companies ran upon all the people that were in the fields, and slew them. And Abimelech, and the company that was with him, rushed forward, and stood in the entering of the gate of the city: and the two other companies ran upon all the people that were in the fields, and slew them.
Abimelech slew the sons of Gideon, his own brothers, to seize rule over Israel, and having hired worthless followers he was chosen as ruler by the men of Shechem. After the city rebelled against his tyrannical rule he turned his forces against Shechem, rushing forward with the company that was with him and standing in the entering of the gate of the city while the two other companies ran upon all the people in the fields and slew them. This seizure of the gate and slaughter in the fields belonged to his wider destruction of Shechem, in which about a thousand people in the tower of Shechem were destroyed, the inhabitants slain, the city reduced to ashes and its ground sown with salt as a token of perpetual desolation.
Jotham's parable exposed the folly of choosing Abimelech, since he had caused his brothers to be slain. The attack fulfilled Jotham's words that Abimelech and the men of Shechem would destroy each other. The event was God's retribution both on the murderous king and on the Shechemites who made him king, for Abimelech had been permitted to execute God's vengeance upon Israel, but his cruelty passed the limits of divine forbearance.
The account illustrates that those doing the most valuable work for the Lord do not seek rule over their brethren, and that ambition to be exalted over others shows a lack of qualification for rulership. The ruin of Shechem teaches that sin will never go unpunished and warns of the danger of entering the path of disobedience.