Bava Bathra, fol. 14, col. 1.
Rabbi Chanena said, “If four hundred years after the destruction of the Temple one offers thee a field worth a thousand denarii for one denarius, don’t buy it.”
Avodah Zarah, fol. 9, col. 2.
We know by tradition that the treatise “Avodah Zarah,” which our father Abraham possessed, contained four hundred chapters, but the treatise as we now have it contains only five.
Avodah Zarah, fol. 14, col. 2.
The camp of Sennacherib was four hundred miles in length.
Sanhedrin, fol. 95, col. 2.
“Curse ye Meroz,” etc. (Judges v. 23). Barak excommunicated Meroz at the blast of four hundred trumpets (lit. horns or cornets).
Shevuoth, fol. 36, col. 1.
What is the meaning where it is written (Ps. x. 27), “The fear of the Lord prolongeth days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened;” “The fear of the Lord prolongeth days” alludes to the four hundred and ten years the first Temple stood, during which period the succession of high priests numbered only eighteen. But “the years of the wicked shall be shortened” is illustrated by the fact that during the four hundred and twenty years that the second Temple stood the succession of high priests numbered more than three hundred. If we deduct the forty years during which Shimon the Righteous held office, and the eighty of Rabbi Yochanan, and the ten of Rabbi Ishmael ben Rabbi, it is evident that not one of the remaining high priests lived to hold office for a whole year.
Yoma, fol. 9, col. 1.
“The souls which they had gotten in Haran” (Gen. xii. 5). From this time to the giving of the law was four hundred and forty-eight years.
Avodah Zarah, fol. 9, col. 1.
A young girl and ten of her maid-servants were once kidnapped, when a certain Gentile bought them and brought them to his house. One day he gave a pitcher to the child and bade her fetch him water, but one of her servants took the pitcher from her, intending to go instead. The master, observing this, asked the maid why she did so. The servant replied, “By the life of thy head, my lord, I am one of no less than five hundred servants of this child’s mother.” The master was so touched that he granted them all their freedom.
Avoth d’Rab. Nathan, chap. 17.
Caesar once said to Rabbi Yoshua ben Chananja, “This God of yours is compared to a lion, as it is written (Amos iii. 8), ’The lion hath roared, who will not fear?’ Wherein consists his excellency? A horseman kills a lion.” The Rabbi replied, “He is not compared to an ordinary lion, but to a lion of the forest Ilaei.” “Show me that lion at once,” said the Emperor. “But thou canst not behold him,” said the Rabbi. Still the Emperor insisted on seeing the lion; so the Rabbi prayed to God to help him in his perplexity. His prayer was heard; the lion came forth from his lair and roared, upon which, though it was four hundred miles away, all the walls of Rome trembled and fell to the ground. Approaching three hundred miles nearer, he roared again, and this time the teeth of the people dropped out of their mouths and the Emperor fell from his throne quaking. “Alas! Rabbi, pray to thy God that He order the lion back to his abode in the forest.”