¹⁷ If some of the branches have been broken off,^(A) and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others^(B) and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, ¹⁸ do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.^{(C) 19} You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.”

²⁴ After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree,^(A) how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!