diff --git a/python/python/lancedb/embeddings/instructor.py b/python/python/lancedb/embeddings/instructor.py
index 675a0139c..4ea605bd8 100644
--- a/python/python/lancedb/embeddings/instructor.py
+++ b/python/python/lancedb/embeddings/instructor.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 
 from typing import List
+from urllib.parse import unquote, urlparse
 
 import numpy as np
 
@@ -125,6 +126,10 @@ class InstructorEmbeddingFunction(TextEmbeddingFunction):
 
     @weak_lru(maxsize=1)
     def get_model(self):
+        huggingface_hub = attempt_import_or_raise("huggingface_hub", "huggingface-hub")
+        if not hasattr(huggingface_hub, "cached_download"):
+            huggingface_hub.cached_download = _cached_download(huggingface_hub)
+
         instructor_embedding = attempt_import_or_raise(
             "InstructorEmbedding", "InstructorEmbedding"
         )
@@ -140,3 +145,44 @@ class InstructorEmbeddingFunction(TextEmbeddingFunction):
                 model, {torch.nn.Linear}, dtype=torch.qint8
             )
         return model
+
+
+def _cached_download(huggingface_hub):
+    """Provide the legacy download API used by sentence-transformers 2.2.x."""
+
+    def cached_download(
+        *,
+        url,
+        cache_dir=None,
+        force_filename=None,
+        library_name=None,
+        library_version=None,
+        user_agent=None,
+        use_auth_token=None,
+        **_,
+    ):
+        path = urlparse(url).path.lstrip("/")
+        try:
+            repo_id, resolved_path = path.split("/resolve/", maxsplit=1)
+            revision, filename = resolved_path.split("/", maxsplit=1)
+        except ValueError as err:
+            raise ValueError(f"Unsupported Hugging Face Hub URL: {url}") from err
+
+        repo_id = unquote(repo_id)
+        revision = unquote(revision)
+        filename = unquote(filename)
+        if force_filename is not None:
+            filename = force_filename
+
+        return huggingface_hub.hf_hub_download(
+            repo_id=repo_id,
+            filename=filename,
+            revision=revision,
+            local_dir=cache_dir,
+            library_name=library_name,
+            library_version=library_version,
+            user_agent=user_agent,
+            token=use_auth_token,
+        )
+
+    return cached_download
diff --git a/python/python/tests/test_embeddings.py b/python/python/tests/test_embeddings.py
index 5efb7d98a..393d55625 100644
--- a/python/python/tests/test_embeddings.py
+++ b/python/python/tests/test_embeddings.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 import os
 import pickle
+from types import SimpleNamespace
 from typing import List, Optional, Union
 from unittest.mock import MagicMock, patch
 
@@ -522,6 +523,58 @@ def test_embedding_function_safe_model_dump(embedding_type):
             )
 
 
+def test_instructor_embedding_supports_huggingface_hub_without_cached_download():
+    from lancedb.embeddings.instructor import InstructorEmbeddingFunction
+
+    hub_download = MagicMock(return_value="/cache/1_Pooling/config.json")
+    huggingface_hub = SimpleNamespace(hf_hub_download=hub_download)
+    instructor_model = MagicMock()
+    instructor_embedding = SimpleNamespace(
+        INSTRUCTOR=MagicMock(return_value=instructor_model)
+    )
+
+    def import_dependency(module, _mitigation):
+        if module == "huggingface_hub":
+            return huggingface_hub
+        if module == "InstructorEmbedding":
+            assert hasattr(huggingface_hub, "cached_download")
+            return instructor_embedding
+        if module == "torch":
+            return SimpleNamespace()
+        raise AssertionError(f"Unexpected import: {module}")
+
+    with patch(
+        "lancedb.embeddings.instructor.attempt_import_or_raise",
+        side_effect=import_dependency,
+    ):
+        embedding = InstructorEmbeddingFunction.create(show_progress_bar=False)
+        assert embedding.get_model() is instructor_model
+
+    path = huggingface_hub.cached_download(
+        url=(
+            "https://huggingface.co/hkunlp/instructor-base/resolve/abc123/"
+            "1_Pooling/config.json"
+        ),
+        cache_dir="/cache",
+        force_filename="1_Pooling/config.json",
+        library_name="sentence-transformers",
+        library_version="2.2.2",
+        use_auth_token="token",
+    )
+
+    assert path == "/cache/1_Pooling/config.json"
+    hub_download.assert_called_once_with(
+        repo_id="hkunlp/instructor-base",
+        filename="1_Pooling/config.json",
+        revision="abc123",
+        local_dir="/cache",
+        library_name="sentence-transformers",
+        library_version="2.2.2",
+        user_agent=None,
+        token="token",
+    )
+
+
 @patch("time.sleep")
 def test_retry(mock_sleep):
     test_function = MagicMock(side_effect=[Exception] * 9 + ["result"])