The text also links God’s wrath to “the fear that is due” to God. Explicitly, it portrays God’s anger as weighty and not random, and it assumes that humans tend to underestimate it.

Where interpretation differs (only where needed)

One difference is how to hear the question “Who knows…?” Some take it as mainly rhetorical: practically no one grasps the real weight of divine anger. Others hear it as a humility statement: few grasp it well, but it is possible to know it truly.

Another difference is what “number our days” emphasizes. Some read it mainly as mortality awareness (life is brief). Others think it stresses daily accountability (each day is counted and answerable to God), with mortality as the backdrop.

A smaller difference is how “according to the fear due to you” works. Some understand it as proportionality (God’s wrath matches God’s greatness and the reverence owed). Others hear it as experiential: people experience God’s wrath in line with how seriously they take God.

Why the disagreement exists The Hebrew wording allows more than one natural sense: questions can be rhetorical without denying all possibility of knowledge, and “numbering days” can point both to life’s brevity and to careful reckoning of time. The line about wrath “according to” fear can be heard as describing God’s fitting response or as describing the human side of perceiving that response.

What this passage clearly contributes The passage clearly connects wise living with (1) a true estimate of God’s seriousness and (2) a learned, God-given realism about limited time. It also defines wisdom as belonging to the “heart,” meaning the inner self (thoughts, motives, direction), not merely technical skill. The movement from question (v.11) to request (v.12) presents wisdom as an outcome God teaches in light of human limits and God’s rightful authority.

knows (hō·w·ḏa‘)