Matthew 26 :34

Thrice - Three times.

Verily - Truly; surely.

Jesus said - Our Lord's answer to Peter is very emphatic and impressive. Verily - I speak a solemn weighty truth, thou wilt not only be stumbled, fall off, and forsake thy Master, but thou wilt even deny that thou hast, or ever had, any knowledge of or connection with me; and this thou wilt do, not by little and little, through a long process of time, till the apostasy, daily gathering strength, shall be complete; but thou wilt do it this very night, and that not once only, but thrice; and this thou wilt do also in the earlier part of the night, before even a cock shall crow. Was not this warning enough to him not to trust in his own strength, but to depend on God?

This night - This was in the "evening" when this was spoken, after the observance of the Passover, and, we may suppose, near nine o'clock p.m.

Before the cock crow - Mark and Luke add, before the cock crowed twice. The cock is accustomed to crow twice once at midnight, and once in the morning at break of day. The latter was commonly called cock-crowing. See Mark 13:35. This was the time familiarly known as "the cock-crowing," and of this Matthew and John speak, without referring to the other. Mark and Luke speak of the "second" crowing, and mean the same time, so that there is no contradiction between them.

Deny me thrice - That is, as Luke adds, deny that "thou knowest" me. See Matthew 26:74.