This feminine noun means oversight, watch, or the responsibility of guarding, derived from the root פָקַד (to oversee, attend to). It appears only in Jeremiah 37:13, where it describes an official position: literally 'master/captain of the oversight.' The context is Jeremiah's attempted departure from Jerusalem during the Babylonian siege, when he was stopped at the Benjamin Gate by a guard officer who accused him of deserting to the Chaldeans. The term designates military watch duty or guard command, specifically referring to the supervisory role over checkpoint security.