Tirshatha

Perhaps meaning severe or august, a title of honor borne by Zerubbabel and Nehemiah as Persian governors of Judea, Ezr 2:63 ; Neh 7:65 .\par

Tirshatha. (always written with the article). The title of the governor of Judea, under the Persians, perhaps derived from a Persian root signifying, stern, severe, and it is added as a title, after the name of Nehemiah, Neh 8:9; Neh 10:1 and occurs also, in three other places. In the margin of the Authorized Version, Ezr 2:63; Neh 7:65; Neh 10:1, it is rendered as "governor".

The official title of the Persian governor of Judaea (Ezr 2:63; Neh 7:65; Neh 7:70); applied to Nehemiah (Neh 8:9; Neh 10:1); also to Zerubbabel (Ezr 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 Neh 12:26; Hag 1:1; Hag 2:2; Ezr 5:3; implying governor of a province less than a satrapy.

[Tirsha’tha]

Persian title given to Nehemiah. Neh 8:9; Neh 10:1. In Ezr 2:63, and Neh 7:65; Neh 7:70, the same title doubtless refers to Zerubbabel. In the margin it reads ’governor.’ It is thought to be similar to the modern word Pasha. This is confirmed by the Hebrew word (pechah), used for the title of Nehemiah in Neh 12:26, and elsewhere for the Persian governors.

TIRSHATHA.—A Persian word = ‘His Excellency,’ or more probably ‘His Reverence,’ mentioned Ezr 2:63 (= Neh 7:65), Neh 7:70; Neh 8:9; Neh 10:1. In the first three passages he is unnamed, but is apparently Zerubbabel; in the last two he is Nehemiah. The title is used interchangeably with the Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] pechah or ‘governor,’ of which it may be the Persian equivalent, and apparently represents a plenipotentiary appointed for a special mission.

C. W. Emmet.

tẽr-shā´tha, tûr´sha-tha (תּרשׁתא, tirshāthā’; Ἁθερσαθά, Hathersathá): A title which occurs 5 times in Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezr 2:63; Neh 7:65, the American Standard Revised Version and the English Revised Version margin “governor”). In Neh 8:9; Neh 10:1, Nehemiah is called the tirshāthā’. In Ezr 2:63; Neh 7:65, Neh 7:70, it is the title of Sheshbazzar, or Zerubbabel. As in Neh 12:26, Nehemiah is called a peḥāh, or governor, a title which in Ezr 5:14 is given to Sheshbazzar also, it has been supposed that peḥāh and tirshāthā’ were equivalent terms, the former being of Assyrio-Babylonian and the latter of Persian origin. According to Lagarde, it comes from the Bactrian antarekshatra, that is, “he who takes the place of the king.” According to Meyer and Scheftelowitz it is a modified form of a hypothetical Old Persian word tarsata. According to Gesenius and Ewald, it is to be compared with the Persian torsh, “severe,” “austere,” i.e. “stern lord.” It seems more probable that it is derived from the Babylonian root rashu, “to take possession of,” from which we get the noun rashu, “creditor.” In this case it may well have had the sense of a tax-collector. One of the principal duties of the Persian satrap, or governor, was to assess and collect the taxes (see Rawlinson’s Persia, chapter viii). This would readily account for the fact that in Neh 7:70 the tirshāthā’ gave to the treasure to be used in the building of the temple a thousand drachms of gold, etc., and that in Ezr 1:8 Cyrus numbered the vessels of the house of the Lord unto Sheshbazzar. This derivation would connect it with the Aramaic rashya, “creditor,” and the New Hebrew rāshūth, “highest power,” “magistrate.”