He struck of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of Yahweh, he struck of the people fifty thousand seventy men; and the people mourned, because Yahweh had struck the people with a great slaughter.
"Come down and take it up to you"  (1 Samuel 6:21).  Instead of praising God for the privilege of having the ark of his presence in their city, the men of Beth-shemesh were concerned only with getting rid of it.  "Their reasoning was basically the same as that of the Philistines."[26]  As Young stated it, "Their action illustrates man's desire to free himself from the presence of God instead of seeking to make himself fit for it."[27]