Midrash Abkir (Hebrew: מדרש אבכיר) is one of the smaller midrashim, the extant remains of which consist of more than 50 excerpts contained in the Yalkut Shimoni and a number of citations in other works.
Midrash Abkir derived its name from the formula אבכיר = אמן בימינו כן יהי רצון with which all these homilies closed, according to the testimony of R. Eleazar of Worms in a manuscript commentary on the prayer-book, and according to a codex of A.
[2] Shemḥasai (Samyaza) and Azael, according to the account in the Midrash Abkir, descended to earth to hallow the name of God in a degenerate world, but could not withstand the daughters of man.
As a reward for her virtue she was placed among the Pleiades, while the angel did penance before the Flood, and in punishment of his seduction of the daughters of men was suspended head downward between heaven and earth.
14:24) relates that the Egyptian magicians Jannes and Jambres obtained wings by their art and soared to heaven, but were dashed down into the sea by the angel Michael.
[1] This midrash was known to the author of Shemot Rabbah, and was used or cited in the following works among others: Lekach Ṭob by R. Tobias b. Eliezer, Ha-Roḳeaḥ by Eleazar ben Judah of Worms, Pa'aneach Raza, the Ketab Tamim by Moses Taku, the Kad ha-Kemach of Bahya ben Asher, a manuscript commentary by a grandson of R. Samuel of Speier, and the Yalkut Re'ubeni.