Jehoshaphat

Biblical accounts present Jehoshaphat as the son of Asa who became king of Judah at the age of thirty‑five and reigned twenty‑five years. The Chronicler situates him as a dynastic successor in the Davidic line, emphasizes his reforms and religious zeal, and links his reign to divine favor manifested as national prosperity. Genealogical lists in biblical and later Christian texts (e.g., Matthew 1) include Jehoshaphat among the Davidic ancestors, while some priestly lists and later historians produce variant placements and disagreements about a priestly bearer of the name.

The supplied sources do not give any physical description of Jehoshaphat. He is treated as a historical and narrative actor—king, administrator, and ancestral name—rather than a figure with distinctive or supernatural appearance in the texts summarized.

Sources attribute to Jehoshaphat administrative, judicial, religious, and military actions: instituting judicial reforms and appointing judges (2 Chronicles 19), sending priests and Levites through the land to instruct the people in the Law (2 Chronicles 17, paralleling Deuteronomy 31), suppressing idolatrous 'high places' and Asheroth, forging political alliances (notably with the northern kingdom of Israel), participating in military actions (e.g., the campaign at Ramoth‑Gilead and the episode of the Moabite threat where prophetic assurance is reported), and pursuing maritime commerce (shipbuilding at Ezion‑Geber, which failed according to the narrative). The Chronicler interprets these human political and religious acts as occasions for receiving or losing YHWH’s blessing, and records prophetic intervention (e.g., Jahaziel’s oracle) as the means by which divine deliverance is declared.