And the second time the cock crew,.... Immediately, as soon as he had so said and swore, as the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions read, and as it is read in one of Beza's copies; which was about three of the clock in the morning, and is what is properly called the cock crowing:
and Peter called to mind; upon hearing the cock crow a second time,
the word that Jesus said unto him, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice: as he now had done twice, to the maid or maids, and a third time to the servants that stood by the fire along with him:
and when he thought thereon; on the words of Christ, and on his sin in denying him, and on the aggravated circumstances of it. The Arabic version renders it, "he turned himself to weep"; he turned away from the company, he threw himself out of it, and got out of doors as fast as he could, and broke out into a violent fit of weeping. The Syriac, Persic, and Vulgate Latin versions, render it, "he began to weep"; this phrase is omitted in the Ethiopic version: some choose to render it, "he looked upon him", that is, on Christ: as Christ looked upon him; which produced true evangelical repentance in him, so Peter looked upon his dear Lord with concern, whom he so had shamefully denied; he looked upon him and mourned, he looked upon him with an eye of faith, and sorrowed for his sin after a godly sort: but the true sense of the word is, "he covered himself"; he cast his garment over his head, he veiled himself as mourners did, who covered their heads, and their faces, and even their lips. So Maimonides o;
"from whence, says he, is uncovering the head, forbidden a mourner? For, lo! it is said to Ezekiel 24:17, "cover not thy lips" at all, for the rest of mourners are obliged to the covering of the head; the linen cloth, or veil, with which he covers his head, he covers with a part of it, a little over his mouth; as it is said, Leviticus 13:45, "He shall put a covering upon his upper lip": and Onkelos paraphrases it,
כאבלא יתעטף, "as a mourner he shall cover himself".''
And so it is said of Haman p,
"that he went to his house, and mourned for his daughter,
ומתעטף על רישיה כאבלא, "and put a covering on his head as a mourner": for his daughter, and for his reproach.''
And this, it seems, was the custom of the Ishmaelites: hence that saying q,
"all veiling (in mourning) which is not as the veiling of the Ishmaelites (who cover all the face), is no veiling?''
And thus Peter, through shame, and as a token of sorrow and mourning for his sin, threw his garment over him:
and he wept; as Matthew says, "bitterly": being fully convinced of his sin, and heartily sorry lot it; Matthew 26:75.
o Hilch. Ebel, c. 5. sect. 19. p Targum in Esther vi. 12. Vid. Targum in Mic. iii. 7. q T. Bab. Moed. Katon, fol. 24. 1.