(19) В¶ And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
In order to have a right apprehension of the sense of this verse, we must consider in the first place, the sin of the Bethshemites in looking into the ark. If the Reader will consult the scriptures of God upon this point, he will see that the ark was made as a token of a meeting place between Jehovah and his people. See Exodus 25:8-9. That Aaron never was permitted to approach within the vail but once in a year, on the great day of atonement, and this not without blood: evidently teaching thereby the sanctity to be observed towards the ark. See Leviticus 16:2-13, etc. And we have authority from the apostle Paul to explain all this, in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ; the Holy Ghost (he tells us) thus signifying: See Hebrews 9:1-13. From this view of the subject, we immediately learn in what the sin of the men of Bethshemesh consisted; namely, presumptuously drawing nigh to God without an eye by faith to a Mediator. See the awfulness of such an approach, represented in another place. Exodus 19:16 to the end. Concerning the numbers stated in this verse, that God smote of the people, fifty thousand and threescore and ten men; if it be read, (and which without violence to the original it might be read), he smote of the fifty thousand of the people, threescore and ten men; then it will follow, that only seventy persons perished for this presumption of looking into the ark, out of the fifty thousand of the men of Bethshemesh. Josephus is of this opinion.