The term governor
denotes an official the king appointed to rule a district on his behalf. Nehemiah was entrusted with the district known as Judah,
the portion of historic Israel where the returned exiles settled. It was surrounded by peoples hostile to the Jews, that is, Samaritans to the north, Ammonites to the east, Arabs to the south and Ashdodites (Philistines) to the west (Nehemiah 4:7).
14 Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor.