Halakhah for Sotah 69:23
(שמואל א ו, יט) ויך באנשי בית שמש כי ראו בארון משום דראו ויך (אלהים) רבי אבהו ורבי אלעזר חד אמר קוצרין ומשתחוים היו וחד אמר מילי נמי אמור
Because he called words of Torah 'songs', as it is said: Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ps. CXIX, 54. When he fled from his enemies, he entertained himself by treating Scriptural passages as songs. He thus made a profane use of them. ');"><sup>40</sup></span> The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, 'Words of Torah, of which it is written: Wilt thou set thine eyes upon it? It is gone,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Prov. XXIII, 5 — i.e., the Torah is beyond human understanding. ');"><sup>41</sup></span> thou recitest as songs! I will cause thee to stumble in a matter which even school-children know.' For it is written: But unto the sons of Kohath he gave none, because the service of the sanctuary etc.;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Num. VII, 9. The ark had to be carried upon the shoulders of the Levites. ');"><sup>42</sup></span> and yet [David] brought it in a waggon. And he smote of the men of Beth-Shemesh, because they looked into the ark.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I Sam. VI, 19. ');"><sup>43</sup></span> God smote them because they looked into the ark! R. Abbahu and R. Eleazar [differ in their interpretation]; one said that they went on reaping while they prostrated themselves [before the ark];<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [The phrase [H] is taken to signify 'they gazed at the ark' with unbecoming interest, v. Driver, S.R., Samuel, a.l.] ');"><sup>44</sup></span> the other said that they also used this [disrespectful] language to it,