R. Eleazar said further:’ What has been said about Leah having borne six sons and one daughter and Rachel having borne two sons is assuredly correct; but how do the sons of the concubines fit into the scheme? They constitute, as it were, the four joints, the socalled hinder parts, alluded to in the statement: “and all their hinder parts were inward” (I Kings 7, 25).

For the right arm contains three joints, the middle one of which is the largest and projects backwards, being as it were outside the body. There is a similar joint in the left arm, as well as in the right thigh and in the left thigh; and when the whole is properly arranged, all of them look inward, in fulfilment of the statement, “all their hinder parts were inward”.

Now all the other joints are in the line of the body, but these protrude outside the arms and the thighs. Correspondingly, the sons of the handmaids, although they are within the number, yet are not of the same rank as the sons of Rachel and Leah, and thus remain outside.

According to another explanation, these four are the joints by which all the others are moved.’ R. Abba remarked: ‘So assuredly it is, and thus the whole is properly constructed.’