1 Kings 22:49
Then said Ahaziah the son of Ahab unto Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with thy servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not. Then said Ahaziah the son of Ahab unto Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with thy servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not.
The verse stands near the close of a long history that begins with Solomon multiplying wives to himself until they turned away his heart. That history continues with the division of the kingdom into Judah and Israel with war and strife between them, and with weak Rehoboam and Jeroboam setting up altars against the altar of God. It proceeds through Abijah and Asa in Judah, and through Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri and wicked Ahab in Israel. It includes Elijah as God's great prophet who slew the prophets of Baal, prayed for rain that God answered, became discouraged through weariness, and was translated.
The verse belongs to the account of Jehoshaphat's reign and records his great mistake of allying himself with the house of Ahab. Together with the preceding verse it shows that the ships Jehoshaphat sent with Ahab's son Ahaziah were wrecked. This failed alliance warns that relying on earthly power to advance the church's mission brings defeat and disaster.