Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
Boast not against the (rejected) branches.
But if thou (do) boast (remember that), thou bearest not ('it is not thou that bearest') the root, but the root thee - q.d., 'If the branches may not boast over the root that bears them, then may not the Gentile boast over the seed of Abraham; for what is thy standing, O Gentile, in relation to Israel, but that of a branch in relation to the root? From Israel hath come all that thou art and hast in the family of God; for "salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22).