The Anointing at Bethany

³ While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,^[a] as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head.^{(A) 4} But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? ⁵ For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. ⁶ But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. ⁷ For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish, but you will not always have me.^{(B) 8} She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial.^{(C) 9} Truly I tell you, wherever the good news^[b] is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”