How do I use "由她吧"?

Question

I came across this phrase in the CNVS translation of Mark 14:6.

但耶稣说："由她吧！为甚么难为她呢？她在我身上作的是一件美事。"

Going off of an English translation (ESV in this case), I assume it means "Leave her alone."

But Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me."

For context, here are both translations of Mark 14 side-by-side.

I've never seen or heard of 由她/他吧 before, and I wasn't able to find a definition for 由 that fits this usage. So I'm asking, how do I use this phrase? When is it appropriate?

Answer 1

Here "由她吧！", as same as "任由她吧！"。

In Chinese, there is a word "任由", means as someone like to do something freely, for short "任" or "由"。 As an Example "天高任(任由)鸟飞"(The sky is so vast that birds can fly freely).

Here Jesus said "由她吧！", means "Just let her do whatever she want, I won't give her hard time."

The usage always like "由 某人 做某事"。As same as "Let someone do something freely, no one stop it, at least I won't do that".

For example, 由他睡(let him sleep if he want), 由他吃(let him eat if he want).

Answer 2

the song: let it go. perfectly express the meaning of 由她吧