1 Samuel 6 · a question people ask
Why were the men of Beth Shemesh struck?
The verse gives its own reason: "He struck of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the LORD’s ark" (6:19). The chapter doesn't describe the looking further, and it doesn't say whether those who looked were among the Levites who had taken the ark down (6:15). Christians read the reason in two main ways. Both take 6:19's reason as the text gives it, and both hear the men's own words that followed: "Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God?" (6:20).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
The looking itself broke the LORD's command
Those who read it this way point to the Law about the ark. When the camp moved, Aaron and his sons were to take down the veil and "cover the ark of the Testimony with it" (Numbers 4:5). Only then did the sons of Kohath carry the holy things: "they shall not touch the sanctuary, lest they die" (Numbers 4:15), and "they shall not go in to see the sanctuary even for a moment, lest they die" (Numbers 4:20). In Hebrew, see there and looked in 6:19 are the same verb, ra'ah. On this reading the men died as the Law had warned, for the act 6:19 names. Later, when Uzzah took hold of the ark, "God struck him there for his error" (2 Samuel 6:7), and David said, "we didn’t seek him according to the ordinance" (1 Chronicles 15:13).
Numbers 4:5 · Numbers 4:15 · Numbers 4:20 · 2 Samuel 6:6-7 · 1 Chronicles 15:13
The looking showed they didn't treat him as holy
Those who read it this way point to what the men said next: "Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God?" (6:20). They set it beside the LORD's words after Nadab and Abihu died: "I will show myself holy to those who come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified" (Leviticus 10:3). On this reading the looking was the outward act of people who came near the ark without treating the LORD as holy, and the men's own question names what they learned.
1 Samuel 6:20 · Leviticus 10:1-3
The verses
“The Levites took down the LORD’s ark and the box that was with it, in which the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone; and the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day to the LORD.”
“He struck of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the LORD’s ark, he struck fifty thousand seventy of the men. Then the people mourned, because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter. The men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? To whom shall he go up from us?””