Only the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places — despite Amaziah's general faithfulness, the high places (*bamot*, במות) persist as sites of unauthorized worship. These locations represented syncretistic practices and violated the centralization principle later emphasized in Deuteronomy. The people's continued use of high places, unchecked by the king, demonstrates how deeply idolatrous practice had penetrated Judean religious life. This institutional compromise would haunt Judah and foreshadow the comprehensive idolatry of later reigns.

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