They also feared the LORD: The pronoun They refers to all the new inhabitants of Samaria who had settled there in place of the Israelites and not just to the last mentioned group as some readers might understand. In some languages it might be wise to translate “All these people….”

Also means in addition to their worship of the other gods mentioned in the previous verses. The Hebrew text does not have a separate word that corresponds to the English word also, but Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have added it as the sense requires.

For feared the LORD, see the comments on verse 5 and 25. In the Hebrew text the verb construction here slightly emphasizes this action as simultaneous and continuous. This is also true for the verb sacrificed (literally “they were doing”) later in the verse.

And appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places: In some languages it may be more natural to connect this clause to the previous clause with a conjunction like “but” (New International Version, New Century Version) rather than and as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. This is because the appointment of priests for places of worship may be seen as incompatible with the statement that They also feared the LORD. Revised English Bible attempts to accomplish the same kind of thing with the following wording: “While still paying homage to the LORD, they appointed all sorts of people to act as priests of the shrines.”

From among themselves all sorts of people; that is, from all their own non-Israelite population. They did not select priests from among the Israelites. The same sort of expression is elsewhere translated by Revised Standard Version as “from among all the people” (see 1 Kgs 12.31; 13.33). In any case, the priests who would have been chosen would clearly not have been from the tribe of Levi as required by the Law of Moses. Some other renderings here are “from their own ranks” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) and “from their number” (New American Bible).

Priests of the high places are priests who offered sacrifices at the places of worship that the author did not consider acceptable since sacrifices to Yahweh were to be done only at the Temple in Jerusalem. The translation of the second half of this verse in Good News Translation is misleading. The author is not talking about the worship of foreign gods here in verse 32 as he has been in the preceding verses. Here the focus in on the people’s improper worship of the LORD. The accusation against the people is that even though they worshiped God, they worshiped him incorrectly by worshiping God at the high places rather than in the central place of worship in Jerusalem (see 2 Kgs 18.22 and the comments at 2 Kgs 12.3 and 16.4) and by appointing as priests men who were not qualified to serve as priests.

The shrines of the high places: See verse 29.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .