Acts 9:37

She was sick, and died - Even her holiness and usefulness could not prevent her from sickness and death. Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return, is a decree that must be fulfilled, even on the saints; for the body is dead, sentenced to death, because of sin, though the spirit be life because of righteousness.

Whom when they had washed - Having the fullest proof that she was dead, they prepared for her interment. In most nations of the world it was customary to wash their dead before they buried them, and before they laid them out to lie in state, as Homer tells us was the case with the body of Patroclus: -

Ὡς εἱπων, ἑταροισιν εκεκλετο διος Αχιλλευς ,

Αμφι πυρι Ϛησαι τριποδα μεγαν, οφρα ταχιϚαΠατροκλον λουσειαν -

Και τοτε δη λουσαν τε, και ηλειψαν λιπ ' ελαιῳ

- Iliad xviii. 343.