Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa the king of Judah, reigned during the last 12 – 13 years of Ahab’s life. Sometime during that period, probably around the time when Ahab repented of taking Naboth’s vineyard away from him, “Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel” (1 Kings 22:44). Jehoshaphat’s motive for making peace could have been Ahab’s defeat of Ben-hadad. Jehoshaphat may have interpreted the deliverance of the Syrian army as a sign that Ahab was in God’s favor.

The peace agreement between Jehoshaphat and Ahab was in the form of a marriage alliance between their two children. Ahab’s daughter Athaliah was given to Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram as a wife in order to unite the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Because of this agreement, when Ahab asked Jehoshaphat to go with him to battle against Syria (1 Kings 22:4), Jehoshaphat couldn’t say no without jeopardizing their relationship.

Jehoshaphat attempted to influence Ahab into walking with the LORD (1 Kings 22:7), but Ahab’s heart was bent toward doing evil. Even after the prophet Micaiah told Ahab he would be killed in battle (1 Kings 22:17), Ahab attacked the king of Syria anyway. Ahab thought he could outwit his enemy by disguising himself. It says in 1 Kings 22:30 that Ahab “said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and enter into the battle; but put thou on thy robes.” In other words, Ahab wanted Jehoshaphat to act as a decoy and risk his life to prevent Ahab from being killed.

It is likely Jehoshaphat agreed because he believed he would be killed anyway. Micaiah’s prophecy indicated Israel’s army would be left leaderless, “he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd” (1 Kings 22:17). When the captains of Ben-hadad army saw Jehoshaphat, they thought he was the king of Israel. “And they turned aside to fight against him: and Jehoshaphat cried out. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots perceived that is was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him” (1 Kings 22:32-33).

The word translated cried in 1 Kings 22:32, za‘aq is most frequently used for crying out for divine aid (2199). Jehoshaphat cried out to God for help and the captains of the chariots perceived that he was not the king of Israel, the man they were looking for, and left him alone. In the moment when Jehoshaphat cried out to the LORD, God could have ignored his plea for help. Jehoshaphat had no business going to battle with Syria after Micaiah prophesied they would be defeated, but God did help him, because Jehoshaphat was honoring his peace agreement with Ahab.