1. IT WAS now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief priests and the scribes were all the while seeking to arrest [Jesus] by secrecy and deceit and put [Him] to death,
2. For they kept saying, It must not be during the Feast, for fear that there might be a riot of the people.
3. And while He was in Bethany, [a guest] in the house of Simon the leper, as He was reclining [at table], a woman came with an alabaster jar of ointment (perfume) of pure nard, very costly and precious; and she broke the jar and poured [the perfume] over His head.
4. But there were some who were moved with indignation and said to themselves, To what purpose was the ointment (perfume) thus wasted?
5. For it was possible to have sold this [perfume] for more than 300 denarii [a laboring man's wages for a year] and to have given [the money] to the poor. And they censured and reproved her.
6. But Jesus said, Let her alone; why are you troubling her? She has done a good and beautiful thing to Me [praiseworthy and noble].
7. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you will not always have Me. [Deut. 15:11.]
8. She has done what she could; she came beforehand to anoint My body for the burial.