They feared the Lord; they worshipped God externally in that way which the Israelites used. Served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence: these words belong, either,
1. To both the foregoing branches, and to the Israelites; and then the sense is, they trod in the steps of their predecessors, the Israelites, (who, in regard of their several tribes, are both here and elsewhere called nations,) who did, many of them, worship both God in their calves, and Baal too. Or,
2. To the last branch only; but then the words must be otherwise rendered, they served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from which they brought, or carried them, or from whence they (these new inhabitants) were brought, i.e. each of them served the god of the country or place whence he was brought, as is related above, 2 Kings 17:30,31. But these nations could not so properly be said to be carried away, or to be carried away captive, (as this Hebrew word signifies,) as the Israelites; and therefore the former interpretation seems more proper.