Here "laid hold of" represents choosing to be loyal to them. Alternate translation: "they chose to be loyal to other gods" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-metaphor]])
These two phrases mean the same thing. The phrase "bowed down to them" describes the posture that people used in worship. (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-parallelism]])