There is a moment in Chullin 90b where Rava calls out his fellow rabbi for exaggeration. The Mishnah had just described the heap of ashes that accumulated on the Temple altar — sometimes, it said, three hundred kor of ash, nearly 2,830 bushels. That cannot be literal, Rava objected.
Rav Ammi answered with a principle. The Torah, the Prophets, and the sages all use hyperbolic language — not to lie, but to let the listener feel the scale.
He cited examples. The Torah speaks of cities great and walled up to heaven (Deuteronomy 1:28). The Prophets describe the coronation of Solomon with the earth rent with the sound of them (1 Kings 1:40). And the sages spoke the same way about the Temple.
Rav Ammi offered another example. A golden vine stood at the entrance of the Temple, its clusters trailing on crystal supports. Pilgrims who could afford to donate would hang offerings of fruit and grape-clusters from its branches until the vine sagged under the wealth of Israel. Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Tzadok testified: It once happened that three hundred priests were assigned just to clear the offerings from the vine.
Whether the number is exact is not the point. The vine was a living icon — the Temple itself as a grapevine bearing fruit, each cluster the gift of a Jew who had walked to Jerusalem and refused to come empty-handed.