The official title of the Persian governor of Judaea (Ezra 2:63; Nehemiah 7:65; Nehemiah 7:70); applied to Nehemiah (Nehemiah 8:9; Nehemiah 10:1); also to Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:63). From a Persian root, "his severity." Like the German title of consuls of free and imperial cities, gestrenger herr. So "our most dread sovereign." Pecheh (our pasha) is the title of Nehemiah in Nehemiah 12:26; Haggai 1:1; Haggai 2:2; Ezra 5:3; implying governor of a province less than a satrapy.