So they worshipped the LORD but also served their own gods, in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought — the summary verse clarifies the syncretic outcome: the replacement populations "worshipped the LORD" (וַיִּהְיוּ יְרֵאִים אֶת־יְהוָה, *vay-yihyu yerei'im et-YHWH*) out of fear of the land's divine retribution, yet they "also served their own gods" (וְאֶת־אֱלֹהֵיהֶם הָיוּ עֹבְדִים, *ve-et-Elohehem hayu oveдim*) according to their ancestral customs. This compromise—fear-based Yahwism coupled with ancestral polytheism—defines the religious identity of the replacement populations and later the Samaritan community. The theological irony is profound: forced to worship the land's deity (the LORD) to avoid divine punishment, the foreign populations created a syncretized religion fundamentally compromised.

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