a woman came to him with an alabaster jar ¹  of expensive perfumed oil, ²  and she poured it on his head as he was at the table. ³ 

He came and raised her up by gently taking her hand. Then the fever left her and she began to serve ¹  them.

So ¹  he stood over her, commanded ²  the fever, and it left her. Immediately ³  she got up and began to serve ⁴  them.

Then ¹  when Jesus ²  noticed how the guests ³  chose the places of honor, ⁴  he told them a parable. He said to them,

“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, ¹  do not take ²  the place of honor, because a person more distinguished than you may have been invited by your host. ³ 

If I have found favor in the king’s sight and if the king is inclined ¹  to grant my request and perform my petition, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet that I will prepare for them. At that time ²  I will do as the king wishes. ³ 

But when you are invited, go and take the least important place, so that when your host ¹  approaches he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up here to a better place.’ ²  Then you will be honored in the presence of all who share the meal with you.

But he urged ¹  them persistently, so they turned aside with him and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them, including bread baked without yeast, and they ate.

David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and I am certainly expected to join the king for a meal. ¹  You must send me away so I can hide in the field until the third evening from now.

While at the banquet of wine, the king said to Esther, “What is your request? It shall be given to you. What is your petition? Ask for as much as half the kingdom, ¹  and it shall be done!”

So then I, the Lord who rules over all, ¹  have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem: ²  ‘I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment. ³  For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason ⁴  that ungodliness ⁵  has spread throughout the land.’”

But Martha was distracted ¹  with all the preparations she had to make, ²  so ³  she came up to him and said, “Lord, don’t you care ⁴  that my sister has left me to do all the work ⁵  alone? Tell ⁶  her to help me.”

The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, ¹  I will permit ²  him to eat from the tree of life that is ³  in the paradise of God.’ ⁴ 

When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the servant who was over his household, “Bring the men to the house. Slaughter an animal and prepare it, for the men will eat with me at noon.”

But the next morning, the second day of the new moon, David’s place was still vacant. So Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why has Jesse’s son not come to the meal yesterday or today?”

Then David summoned him. He ate and drank with him, and got him drunk. But in the evening he went out to sleep on his bed with the servants of his lord; he did not go down to his own house.

On the second day of the banquet of wine the king asked Esther, “What is your request, Queen Esther? It shall be granted to you. And what is your petition? Ask up to half the kingdom, and it shall be done!”

But in the seventh month ¹  Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama who was a member of the royal family and had been one of Zedekiah’s chief officers, came with ten of his men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. While they were eating a meal together with him there at Mizpah,

Now ¹  while Jesus ²  was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, reclining at the table, ³  a woman came with an alabaster jar ⁴  of costly aromatic oil ⁵  from pure nard. After breaking open the jar, she poured it on his head.