Lo, let that night be solitary
Let there be no company for journeys, or doing any business; no
meetings of friends, neighbours, or relations on it, for
refreshment, pleasure, and recreation, after the business of the
day is over, as is frequently done; let there be no associations
of this kind, or any other: in the night it was usual to have
feasts on various accounts, and especially on account of
marriage; but now let there be none, let there be as profound a
silence as if all creatures, men and beasts, were dead, and
removed from off the face of the earth, and nothing to be heard
and seen on it: or, "let it be barren" or "desolate" F5, so R.
Simeon bar Tzemach interprets it, and refers to ( Isaiah 49:21
) ; that is, let no children be born in it, and so no occasion
for any joy on that account, as follows; let it be as barren as a
flint F6:
let no joyful voice come therein;
which some even carry to the nocturnal singing of saints in
private or in public assemblies, and to the songs of angels,
those morning stars in heaven; but it seems rather to design
natural or civil joy, or singing on civil accounts; as on account
of marriage, and particularly on account of the birth of a child,
and especially his own birth, and even any expressions of joy on
any account; and that there might not be so much as the crowing
of a cock heard, as the Targum has it.