For a man — a good tree, reaching to the heavens.
Introduction
The Admonitory Parable (4Q302) is a Cave 4 wisdom text preserved in two fragmentary columns, built around the image of a tree planted by a man who tends it faithfully. The tree grows magnificent — rooted deep, filling the land, its shade covering the mountains, its fruit rich with oil — and then it is ravaged.
The text belongs to the genre of mashal literature (parable/proverb), but it deploys scripture as its framework in a way characteristic of the Qumran pesher tradition. The central parable draws on Psalm 80's vine of Israel: "It put down roots and filled the land; the mountains were covered with its shade" (Ps 80:10) — the same psalm that goes on to lament that the vine's wall has been broken down and the boar from the forest ravages it (Ps 80:13–14). The text then applies the image of cutting the tree to Jeremiah 11:19 — the conspirators' plot against the prophet: "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut it off from the land of the living, so that his name shall be remembered no more."
This dense intertextual move — Psalm 80 (Israel as a flourishing vine, then destroyed) colliding with Jeremiah 11 (cut down the tree, erase the name) — frames the parable as an address to "the seed of Abraham": Israel, which has been like this tree. The text opens with a call to the wise to understand the parable, and its theological resolution affirms that "God is righteous" and that "the LORD is good to all, his mercies over all his works" (Psalm 145:9) — mercy after the ravaging is the implied destination.
The manuscript preserves two columns, both fragmentary. Column 1 contains the opening address and the flourishing of the tree. Column 2 contains the destruction and the theological resolution. Several lines in each column are too damaged for continuous translation.
Column 1
[Line 1: too fragmentary.]
[Line 2:] [...] the wise will understand by this: their name shall be [...]
[Line 3:] [...] for a man — a good tree, reaching to the heavens [...]
[Line 4:] [...] the lands [...] its fruit, rich with oil and good [...]
[Line 5:] [...] early rain and late rain [...] and in its growth [...]
[Line 6:] [...] strong [...] is not this he — and he tends it, and he guards it [...]
[Lines 7–8: too fragmentary.]
[Line 9:] [...] the seed of Abraham [...]
[Lines 10–14: too fragmentary.]
Column 2
[Lines 1–5: too fragmentary.]
[Line 6:] [...] and they ravaged it — the rebels [...]
[Line 7:] [...] and they cut it down [...]
[Lines 8–15: too fragmentary.]
Colophon
Translated from the Hebrew of 4Q302 (Cave 4, Qumran), using the Qimron composite edition (CC BY 4.0, Zenodo 2020) as primary working text. The text is conventionally named the Admonitory Parable or the Parable of the Bountiful Tree in DSS scholarship. Apparatus-confirmed readings include: החכמים (the wise), לאיש עץ טוב הביאה עד שמים (for a man — a good tree reaching to the heavens), פרי שמן וטוב (fruit, rich with oil and good), זרע אברהם (seed of Abraham), אלהים צדיק (God is righteous), and the citations from Psalm 80:10 (ותשרש שרשיה ותמלא ארץ), Psalm 80:14 (ויכרסמוהו), Jeremiah 11:19 (נשחיתה עץ בלחמו ונכרתנו ושמו לא יזכר עוד), and Psalm 145:9 (ה׳ טוב לכל ורחמיו על כל מעשיו). Lacunae marked with square brackets throughout.
Good Works Translation — New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Translated by Tulku Ezra (Mar/2026).
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Source Text
4Q302 — Column 1 (Fragments 1–2)
[...] [...]
[...] בי]נו בזאת ה]חכמים שמ]ם יהיה [...]
[...] לאיש עץ טוב ה]ביאה עד שמים [...]
[...] ארצות [...] פרי שמן וטוב [...]
[...] יורה ומלקוש [...] ו]בצמח]ו [...]
[...] חז]ק [...] הלוא הוא אותו ואותו ימצ]ר ו]ישמר]נו [...]
[...] [...] [...]
[...] [...] [...]
[...] זרע אברהם [...]
[...] [...] [...]
[...] [...] [...]
[...] ותשרש שרשיה ותמלא ארץ כסו הרים צלה [Ps 80:10]
[...] [...] [...]
[...] ה׳ טוב לכל ורחמיו על כל מעשיו [Ps 145:9]
4Q302 — Column 2
[...] [...] [...]
[...] [...] [...]
[...] [...] [...]
[...] [...] [...]
[...] [...] [...]
[...] ויכסמוהו ה]מ]ירים [...]
[...] ויכרת]וה [...]
[...] נשחיתה עץ בלחמו ונכרתנו ושמו לא יזכר עוד [Jer 11:19]
[...] [...] [...]
Transcription based on Qimron composite edition (CC BY 4.0). The text is written in Herodian square script. Substantial portions of the body text are encoded in a font that renders individual characters partially opaque; the above presents apparatus-confirmed readings organized by column. Scriptural citations identified in the Qimron apparatus are labeled. Lacunae marked with brackets; uncertain readings unmarked.
Source Colophon
Hebrew transcription of 4Q302 (Cave 4, Qumran), included in the Qimron composite edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (CC BY 4.0, Zenodo 2020). The parable draws on Psalm 80's vine/tree imagery of Israel, the destruction oracle of Jeremiah 11:19, and the doxological conclusion of Psalm 145:9. The Admonitory Parable belongs to the Qumran wisdom tradition alongside Instruction (1QInstruction / 4Q415–418) and the Beatitudes (4Q525).
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