So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven
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Just in like manner as the Israelites had done, who served the Lord and the calves, and worshipped God and Baal:
both their children, and their children's children;
that is, the children and children's children of the Samaritans:
as did their fathers, so do they unto this day;
to the writing of this book, which some ascribe to Jeremiah, to whose times, and even longer, they continued this mixed and mongrel worship, for the space of three hundred years, to the times of Alexander the great, of whom Sanballat, governor of Samaria, got leave to build a temple, on Gerizim, for his son-in-law Manasseh, of which he became priest; and the Samaritans were prevailed upon to relinquish their idolatry, and to worship only the God of Israel; and yet it seems but ignorantly, and not without superstition, to the times of Christ, ( John 4:22 ) .