The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there near a large rock. The people chopped up the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.
We are here told, I. How the Philistines dismissed the ark, Sa1 6:10, Sa1 6:11. They were made as glad to part with it as ever they had been to take it. As God had fetched Israel out of the house of bondage, so now he fetched the ark out of its captivity, in such a manner as that Egypt was glad when they departed, Psa 105:38. 1.
Commenting on 1 Samuel 6:10-18
And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite,.... In that part of the valley where they were reaping wheat which belonged to him, whom we nowhere else read; whether a priest or Levite, which is not improbable, since this was a city of the Levites, or a common Israelite, is not certain: and stood there where there was a great stone; afterwards...
and they clave--that is, the Beth-shemites, in an irrepressible outburst of joy. offered the kine--Though contrary to the requirements of the law (Lev 1:3; Lev 22:19), these animals might properly be offered, as consecrated by God Himself; and though not beside the tabernacle, there were many instances of sacrifices offered by prophets and holy men on extraordinary occasions in other places.