Overseer

Overseer (usually פָּקַיד, pakid', visitor, Ge 39:4; Ge 41:34; but Piel of נָצִח, to preside, in 2Ch 2:2,18; 2Ch 34:13; שׁוֹטֵר, in Pr 6:7; ἐπίσκοπος, a bishop, in Ac 20:28), not only an officer who had the superintendence of the household, as Joseph had in that of Pontiphar, but also an overlooker of work-men, as those appointed by Solomon (2Ch 2:18) SEE OFFICER. We read that Pharaoh set taskmasters or overseers, over the children of Israel, who "made their lives bitter with hard bondage" (Ex 1:14), a statement fully confirmed by the monuments, where the taskmasters are uniformly represented armed with cudgels. SEE BASTINADO. In the margins of many of the Psalms, the Hebrew word מנָצֵּח is properly rendered overseer, meaning probably the chief musician, as the text has it. (See Gesenius, Thesaur. s.v.) SEE CHIEF MUSICIAN.