1It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him,

2for they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people."

3And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.

4There were some who said to themselves indignantly, "Why was the ointment wasted like that?

5For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor." And they scolded her.

6But Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.

7For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me.

8She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.

9And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."

10Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them.

11And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.