1Now after two days was [the feast of] the passover and the unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him with subtlety, and kill him:
2for they said, Not during the feast, lest haply there shall be a tumult of the people.
3And while he was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster cruse of ointment of pure nard very costly; [and] she brake the cruse, and poured it over his head.
4But there were some that had indignation among themselves, [saying], To what purpose hath this waste of the ointment been made?
5For this ointment might have been sold for above three hundred shillings, and given to the poor. And they murmured against her.
6But Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.
7For ye have the poor always with you, and whensoever ye will ye can do them good: but me ye have not always.