Shmuel Alef 6:13

13 And they of Beit Shemesh were kotzerim (harvesting) their ketzir chittim (wheat harvest) in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the Aron, and they rejoiced to see it.

Shmuel Alef 6:13 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 6:13

And they of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in
the valley
Which began at Pentecost, in the month Sivan, about our May; so that there were many people in the fields, who were eyewitnesses of this wonderful event:

and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it;
for though the ark while in the tabernacle was only seen by the high priest, when he went into the holy of holies; yet this having been brought out from thence, and exposed in the camp of Israel, some of this place very probably were there at that time, and had seen it, and knew it again by its form and splendour; and which gave them great pleasure to behold, which had been taken, and had been so long in the hand of the enemy, and the people of Israel deprived of it; which was the symbol of the divine Presence among them, and now restored to them again; and in this wonderful way, without seeking for it, without going to war on account of it, without paying a ransom for it; and was brought to them in a cart drawn by cattle without a driver, the lords of the Philistines with a large retinue following it. This is to be understood not of their looking "into" it, as they afterwards did, and were punished, as Kimchi; but of their looking "on" it.

Shmuel Alef 6:13 In-Context

11 And they laid the Aron Hashem upon the agalah, and the box with the akhbarim of zahav and the tzalmei techorim (likenesses of tumors) of theirs.

12 And the cows took the straight derech to the derech Beit Shemesh, and went along the path, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the yamin or to the semol; and the rulers of the Pelishtim went after them as far as the border of Beit Shemesh.

13 And they of Beit Shemesh were kotzerim (harvesting) their ketzir chittim (wheat harvest) in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the Aron, and they rejoiced to see it.

14 And the agalah came into the sadeh of Yehoshua, a man of Beit Shemesh, and stopped there, where there was an even gedolah (a large rock); and they chopped up the wood of the agalah, and offered the cows as an olah (burnt offering) unto Hashem.

15 And the Levi’im took down the Aron Hashem, and the box that was with it, wherein were the kelei zahav, and put them on the even hagedolah (large rock); and the anashim of Beit Shemesh offered olot (burnt offerings) and sacrificed zevakhim (sacrifices) on that day unto Hashem.