This reply contains numerous references (too many to list here) to what he has said earlier. If his friends cannot offer him the benefit of silence (13:5), they could at least listen to what he is saying, as he is not speaking in generalities but about his own personal suffering (5f). His friends’ argument has recently focused on the fate of the wicked, but Job addresses this point and rejects it. The wicked do not suffer; instead, most of them thrive, prosper, and die happy.
What’s more, they mock God! (14). It was a common belief at the time that the effects of a person’s sins were passed on to their family and descendants. That may be true, says Job, but it is unfair. Those who sin must suffer the punishment themselves. What happens after he dies matters little to him (18-21). But no, the wicked do not suffer; on the contrary, they prosper and die happy. That is how things have always been, are now, and will be. The vain advice of his friends is nothing but lies (34). Thus ends the second round of speeches.