56:3–5* shows that the situation of eunuchs was problematic in the early post-exilic community and promises that eunuchs who keep the covenant will receive “a monument and a name better than sons and daughters.” Nehemiah, who was cupbearer to a Persian king, was almost certainly a eunuch. to present some of the Israelites: Royal captives were often educated and treated well in the ancient world so that they could be sent back to their homelands as sympathetic subjects.62 It is possible that the sons of