Your last sentence is true only before the Word was placed in the Ark. Once the Ark had been consecrated, anyone who touched the Ark dropped dead. There are some schools of OT thought which state the Ark itself was hidden behind the veil in the Temple. The light which it emitted was so bright the average Jew could not look upon it. The OT high priest who approached the Ark had to be sinless in order to remain alive in its presence, so great was its holiness. They tied a rope around his waist so his body could be retrieved in case he dropped dead.
Only reference to this is in the Zohar (Kaballah), and it was around the ankle.