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." Ρecheh (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 .