After saying this, Martha went again to the house, leaving Jesus still outside the village. She whispered to her sister Mary:
"The Master is here, and he has asked for you."
On hearing this, Mary rose in haste and went to the place where Jesus was. The friends who were with her, seeing her go out of the house, thought that she was going to the tomb, to weep there, and they followed her, to weep with her. It was the custom in that land, and still is the custom, for those who had lost a friend, to meet at his grave, day after day, and there to mourn for him.
But Mary did not go to her brother's tomb. She went to Jesus, who was still at the place where Martha had met him; and threw herself at his feet, saying, as her sister had said before:
"O Master! if only you had been here, my brother would not have died!"
When Jesus saw her wailing, and saw the friends with her wailing, he too was troubled and greatly distressed.
"Where have you laid him," he asked.
"Come and see, Master," they answered.
Jesus now began to weep, in feeling for the two sisters.
"How he must have loved him!" said the Jews to each other. But some of them said: