TASKMASTER. Two Heb. words are so tr. in the VSS. The first is the less common, נָגַשׂ, H5601, a noun meaning “oppressor,” “driver of workmen” (Exod 3:7 et al.). Such words are common in the Egyp. ostraca which detail the labors of the work gangs who excavated and built the tombs of the pharaohs. The other, more common Heb. term is actually a phrase סַר מַס, “overseer of forced service” which is similar to other phrases in which semantic parallels appear. The term is of very old W Sem., possibly pre-Mosaic origin. It is tr. “taskmaster” in the KJV only in Exodus 1:11.