1 Samuel 6:14
And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Beth-shemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt offering unto the LORD. And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Beth-shemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt offering unto the LORD.
The cart bearing the ark came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and halted there beside the great stone. Its arrival occurred at the season of the wheat harvest.
The wood of the cart was split apart and the cows that had drawn it were offered as a burnt offering to the Lord. The Levites lifted down the ark together with the Philistines' offering, and that offering was presented along with the cart and the cows.
The cows had brought the ark forward under the guidance of angels. Their willingness to leave their calves and their straight, unturned course proved that God Himself was directing the ark to its rightful place.
The people rejoiced when they saw the ark, discerning in its coming the direct working of God. The Philistine lords who had followed looked on at its reception, then went back to Ekron persuaded that their affliction had been a judgment from Israel's God. Thus the return of the ark confronted the people with its sacred character, so that to peer into it from idle curiosity invited severe judgment.