Judges 9:57
And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal. And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.
Judges 9 is a parable in which trees are pictured holding a council and talking, and their speech is figurative rather than an account of things that literally happened. Abimelech, the son of Gideon's maid, caused Gideon's sons, his own brothers, to be slain in order to become ruler of Israel, and Jotham's parable exposes the folly of choosing him as ruler.
After Abimelech had reigned three years, God sent trouble among those who had united in the evil course of making him king. The very men who had set him up by treachery became disgusted with his demoralizing rule and heartless tyranny and determined by treachery to remove him, with discord, strife, and hatred prevailing between Abimelech and his subjects. God in justice rendered the evil of the men of Shechem upon their own heads and brought upon them the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal. This came when rebellious Shechem was attacked by the king's forces, its inhabitants slain, the city reduced to ashes and sown with salt as a token of perpetual desolation, so that Shechem was utterly destroyed by Abimelech.
The verse belongs to the record of backsliding from God and its consequences, showing evil followed by suffering and judgment. The parable teaches that those doing the most valuable work for the Lord do not seek to rule over their fellow believers, and that ambition to be exalted over others shows a person is unfit to rule. This history teaches that sin will never go unpunished and warns of the danger of entering the path of disobedience, while all true greatness of character and all peace and joy of soul must come from entire conformity to the will of God in cheerful obedience.