Jehoshaphat (/dʒəˈhɒʃəfæt/; alternatively spelled Jehosaphat, Josaphat, or Yehoshafat; Hebrew: יְהוֹשָׁפָט, Modern: Yəhōšafaṭ, Tiberian: Yŏhōšāp̄āṭ, "Yahweh has judged";[1] Greek: Ἰωσαφάτ, romanized: Iosafát; Latin: Josaphat), according to the Hebrew Bible, was the son of Asa, and the fourth king of the Kingdom of Judah, in succession to his father.

The Jerusalem Bible states that "the Chronicler sees Asa as a type of the peaceful, Jehoshaphat of the strong king".

[15] The author of the Books of Chronicles generally praises his reign, stating that the kingdom enjoyed a great measure of peace and prosperity, the blessing of God resting on the people "in their basket and their store".

[15] In the eighteenth year of his reign Jehosaphat visited Ahab in Samaria, and nearly lost his life accompanying his ally to the siege of Ramoth-Gilead.

[8] We are told that Jehoshaphat repented, and returned to his former course of opposition to all idolatry, and promoting the worship of God and in the government of his people.

[17] Later it appears that Jehoshaphat entered into an alliance with Ahaziah of Israel, for the purpose of carrying on maritime commerce with Ophir.

The Moabites were subdued, but seeing Mesha's act of offering his own son (and singular heir) as a propitiatory human sacrifice on the walls of Kir of Moab filled Israel with horror, and they withdrew and returned to their own land.

[22] According to some sources (such as the eleventh-century Jewish commentator Rashi), he actually died two years later, but gave up his throne earlier for unknown reasons.

According to its report,[25] Jehoshaphat organized a missionary movement by sending out his officers, the priests, and the Levites to instruct the people throughout the land in the Law of YHWH, the king himself delivering sermons.

Underlying this ascription to the king of the purpose to carry out the Priestly Code, is the historical fact that Jehoshaphat took heed to organize the administration of justice on a solid foundation, and was an honest worshiper of YHWH.

They answered it in a very simple way: Asa and Joshaphat, when clearing away the idols, purposely left the brazen serpent behind, in order that Hezekiah might also be able to do a praiseworthy deed in breaking it.

[32] The phrase, spelled "Jumpin' Geehosofat", is first recorded in the 1865–1866 novel The Headless Horseman by the Irish-American novelist Thomas Mayne Reid.

[35] The longer version "By the shaking, jumping ghost of Jehosaphat" is seen in the 1865 novel Paul Peabody by the English journalist Percy Bolingbroke St John.

On the TV series Car 54, Where Are You?, the character Francis Muldoon cited his partner's frequent use of the phrase "Jumpin' Jehosephat!"

Another reference comes in Keno Don Rosa's The Invader of Fort Duckburg, a Scrooge McDuck Life and Times story.

when confronted with Scrooge McDuck's illegal occupation of the fictitious Fort Duckburg, also in Disney's 1963 animated film The Sword in the Stone, Merlin uses "Jehoshaphat" to express alarm and annoyance.