Peter remembered the saying of Jesus refers back to verse 34. Here the saying of Jesus can be “what Jesus had said.”

Matthew and Luke (22.61) agree in their presentation of Jesus’ prediction: Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times. In contrast Mark has “Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times” (14.72). Rather than use direct discourse, for some languages indirect will be better: “then Peter remembered that Jesus had told him that before the rooster crowed (that night) he would deny Jesus three times.”

And he went out and wept bitterly is word-for-word the same in Matthew and Luke (22.62). Went out presumably means out of the courtyard of the High Priest.

For Peter to weep bitterly means to weep a great deal, of course, but more than that. Translators should think how they would feel if they had done what Peter did and find the appropriate expression in their language. Perhaps “wept in great anguish” or “… in great sorrow.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .