For if the first-fruits be holy, so is the lump: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.

And if some of the branches were broken off, and thou being a wild olive wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the good olive,

Boast not against the branches, but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

Wilt thou say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in?

Be not high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed left he also spare not thee.

For if thou wert cut off from the naturally wild olive-tree, and grafted contrary to nature into a good olive-tree; how much more shall these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive-tree?