The literary movement from the general to the specific is parallel to that of vv. 6–7, thus granting a formal expression to the sequence ‘sin – punishment’. Both the sin and the punishment refer to the days of Ahaz, with the details of punishment hearkening back to 28.6–8: ‘For Pekah . . . slew a hundred and twenty thousand in Judah . . . because they had forsaken the Lord . . . the men of Israel took captive two hundred thousand of their kinsfolk, women, sons and daughters.’ This chain of events, which links so strongly the stories of Ahaz and Hezekiah, now demands a change.
