Howbeit. — And. The colonists did not fear Jehovah in a monotheistic sense; they simply added his cultus to that of their ancestral deities.
The houses of the high places. — The temples or chaples which constituted the sanctuaries of the different cities in the Samaritan territory.
The Samaritans — i.e., the people of northern Israel. (Comp. Samaria in 2 Kings 17:24.)
Dwelt. — Were dwelling.