³ When he was in Bethany reclining at table in the house of Simon the leper,^(A) a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil, costly genuine spikenard. She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head. ⁴ There were some who were indignant. “Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil? ⁵ It could have been sold for more than three hundred days’ wages and the money given to the poor.” They were infuriated with her. ⁶ Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you make trouble for her? She has done a good thing for me. ⁷ The poor you will always have with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you will not always have me. ⁸ She has done what she could. She has anticipated anointing my body for burial. ⁹ Amen, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

Chapter 12

The Anointing at Bethany.^{(A) 1 [a]}Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.^{(B) 2} They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.^{(C) 3} Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus^[b] and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.^{(D) 4} Then Judas the Iscariot, one [of] his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said, ⁵ “Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages^[c] and given to the poor?” ⁶ He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions.^{(E) 7} So Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial.^{[d] 8} You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”^(F)