saris

This is the word for a man who holds a post inside a royal household or government. He stands close to the throne and carries out the king's business: guarding the palace, overseeing the harem, running an errand of state, commanding troops, or managing the king's affairs. The job, not any physical condition, is what the word names in these places.

The clearest proof that the word can mean simply "officer" is Potiphar, called by this title yet plainly a married man with a household of his own. The same is true of Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and chief baker, of the commander set over Judah's soldiers, and of the various palace officers who appear in the courts of Israel, Judah, Babylon, and Persia. In all of these the word marks rank and royal service.

Because such posts were often filled by castrated men in ancient royal courts, the word also came to mean "eunuch" outright (the second meaning below). Many verses sit between the two: an officer of a foreign king, or a keeper of the women, may or may not have been castrated, and the text does not always say. Where it cannot be settled, the safest reading is the plain one, an officer of the court.

In some places the word points specifically to a castrated man. The plainest case is the prophet's promise that the faithful eunuch who keeps the covenant will be welcomed by God and given a name better than sons and daughters. There the whole point is that such a man cannot father children, so "eunuch" is unmistakable.

The other clear case is the warning to Hezekiah that some of his own descendants will be carried off to serve in the palace of the king of Babylon as eunuchs. The threat is that the royal line will be cut down to attendants who can have no heirs.

This meaning grew out of the first. Ancient kings staffed their palaces, and especially their harems, with castrated men, so the word for such an officer slid into the word for a castrated man. That is why the two meanings cannot always be told apart, and why a number of occurrences are left here unsorted between them.