Matthew 26:6-13 - Jesus' Anointing At Bethany

⁶ After Jesus had reached Bethany, and while he was in the house of Simon the leper, ⁷ a woman came up to him with an alabaster jar of very costly perfume, and poured the perfume upon his head as he was at table. ⁸ The disciples were indignant at seeing this. "What is this waste for?" they exclaimed. ⁹ "It could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to poor people."

¹⁰ "Why are you troubling the woman?" Jesus said, when he noticed it. "For this is a beautiful deed that she has done to me. ¹¹ You always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. ¹² In pouring this perfume on my body, she has done it for my burying. ¹³ I tell you, wherever, in the whole world, this Good News is proclaimed, what this woman has done will be told in memory of her."

³ When Jesus was still at Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, while he was at table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of choice spikenard perfume of great value. She broke the jar, and poured the perfume on his head. ⁴ Some of those who were present said to one another indignantly: "Why has the perfume been wasted like this? ⁵ This perfume could have been sold for more than thirty pounds, and the money given to the poor."

⁶ "Let her alone," said Jesus, as they began to find fault with her, "why are you troubling her? This is a beautiful deed that she has done for me. ⁷ You always have the poor 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 perfumed my body beforehand for my burial. ⁹ And I tell you, wherever, in the whole world, the Good News is proclaimed, what this woman has done will be told in memory of her."