Jacob's Anger and David's Bloodshed Word in Their Pleas

"And David fled from Naioth in Ramah" (I Samuel 20:1). Rabbi Zechariah and Rabbi Yonatan bar Ḥaggai, in the name of Rabbi Yitzḥak bar Maryon: The strictness of the fathers is finer than the humility of the sons. The strictness of the fathers — from Jacob: "And Jacob was angry, and quarreled with Laban" (Genesis 31:36). You might suppose that there were blows and wounds there; yet there was nothing there but words of appeasement. Rabbi Simon said: In the way of the world, when a man departs from his father-in-law's house, is it possible that he takes nothing in his hand? But here, even a needle or a pin did not come into his hand. The humility of the sons — from David: "And David fled from Naioth in Ramah" — he mentions bloodshed in his appeasement.