o twenty-two thousand
three hundred (the Gershonites, 7500; the Kohathites, 8600; the
Merarites, 6200, making in all 22,300), the sum total given is only
twenty-two thousand, omitting the three hundred. "Was Moses, your
Rabbi," he asked, "a cheat or a bad calculator?" He answered, "They were
first-borns, and therefore could not be substitutes for the first-born
of Israel."

_Bechoroth_, fol. 5, col. 1.

"And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death" (2 Chron.
xxxii. 33). This is Hezekiah, king of Judah, at whose funeral thirty-six
thousand people attended bare-shouldered, ... and upon his bier was laid
a roll of the law, and it was said, "This man has fulfilled what is
written in this book."

_Bava Kama_, fol. 17, col. 1.

Sennacherib the wicked invaded Jewry with forty-five thousand princes in
golden coronets, and they had with them their wives and odalisques; also
eighty thousand mighty men clad in mail and sixty thousand swordsmen ran
before him, and the rest were cavalry. With a similar army they came
against Abraham, and a like force is to come up with Gog and Magog. A
tradition teaches that the extent of his camp was four hundred parsaes
or leagues, the extent of the horses' necks were forty parsaes. The
total muster of his army was two hundred and sixty myriads of thousands,
less one. Abaii asked, "Less one myriad, or one thousand, or one
hundred? or more literally less one?"

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 95, col. 2.

In the immediate context of the above extract we have the following
legend concerning Sennacherib:--As Rabbi Abhu has said, "Were it not for
this Scripture text it would be impossible to repeat what is written
(Isa. vii. 20), 'In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that
is hired, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head and
the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.'" The story
is this:--The Holy One--blessed be He!--once disguised Himself as an
elderly man and came to Sennacherib, and said, "When thou comest to the
kings of the East and of the West, to force their sons into thine army,
what wilt thou say unto them?" He replied, "On that very account I am in
fear. What shall I do?" God answered him, "Go and disguise thyself."
"How can I disguise myself?" said he. God replied, "Go and fetch me a
pair of scissors and I will cut thy hair." Sennacherib asked, "Whence
shall I fetch them?" "Go to yonder house and bring them." He went
accordingly and