Howbeit the high places were not taken away: for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers.
The high places were not taken away. Those on which idolatry was practiced were entirely destroyed (2 Chronicles 17:6), but those where the people, notwithstanding the erection of the temple, continued to worship the true God, prudence required to be slowly and gradually abolished, in deference to popular prejudice.