(Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.) ¹ 

Then the woman left her water jar, went off into the town and said to the people, ¹ 

Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived. ¹ 

(Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil ¹  and wiped his feet dry with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) ² 

And when she had said this, Martha ¹  went and called her sister Mary, saying privately, ²  “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.” ³ 

Now at that very moment his disciples came back. ¹  They were shocked ²  because he was speaking ³  with a woman. However, no one said, “What do you want?” ⁴  or “Why are you speaking with her?”

When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not lead to death, ¹  but to God’s glory, ²  so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ³ 

Then the people ¹  who were with Mary ²  in the house consoling her saw her ³  get up quickly and go out. They followed her, because they thought she was going to the tomb to weep ⁴  there.

Then Mary took three quarters of a pound ¹  of expensive aromatic oil from pure nard ²  and anointed the feet of Jesus. She ³  then wiped his feet dry with her hair. (Now the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfumed oil.) ⁴ 

When a woman gives birth, she has distress ¹  because her time ²  has come, but when her child is born, she no longer remembers the suffering because of her joy that a human being ³  has been born into the world. ⁴