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Four Kingdoms, Dead Sea Scrolls Text (4Q552–553). Poorly preserved manuscripts of an Aramaic work within the Dead Sea Scrolls (ca. 250 bc–ad 50). These nonbiblical, likely pseudepigraphal texts seem to refer to the four kingdoms of Daniel (Dan 7–8) in the form of a metaphor of four trees (compare Judg 9:7–15).

Due to the fragmentary nature of the manuscripts, it is unclear who receives the vision the text purports to contain. It could be Daniel or the king, or the seer in the text could even be someone other than Daniel. There are also angels present in the text.

Cook notes that the text combines motifs. These motifs include kings being compared to trees (which are cut down)—which is a combination of the parable in Judg 9:7–15 and texts like Ezek 31 and Dan 4—and the “four-kingdom tradition” present in Dan 7–8 and texts like Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Cook, “The Vision of the Four Trees,” 439–40).

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