And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.
And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman. It was "Mary," as we learn from John 12:3.
Having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, х nardou (G3487)] - pure nard, a celebrated aromatic. (See Song of Solomon 1:12)
Very precious - "very costly" (John 12:3),
And she brake the box, and poured it on his head - "and anointed," adds John, "the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment." The only use of this was to refresh and exhilarate-a grateful compliment in the East, amidst the closeness of a heated atmosphere, with many guests at a feast. Such was the form in which Mary's love to Christ, at so much cost to herself, poured itself out.