The midrash begins with a haggadic passage, which, belonging to Exodus 8:16 ("Vayomer hashkem ba-boker"), is found also in the earlier editions of Tanḥuma.
The first part of the Munich codex, after which the work was published by Freimann, under the title "VeHizhir",[2] is doubtless somewhat defective.
"The halakic expositions refer in 'Bo' to tefillin; in 'Beshallaḥ' to the rest on the Sabbath and eruv; in 'Yitro' to the commandments connected with the Decalogue; in 'Mishpaṭim' to the requirements of the judge; in 'Terumah' to the priestly gift; in 'Vayaḳhel' to the Sabbath; in 'Vayiḳra' to slaughtering; in 'Tzav' to the oath and the testimony of witnesses; in 'Shemini' to the 'dine ṭerefah'; in 'Tazria' 'to the 'dine yoledot'; in 'Meẓora' 'to the 'dine ṭum'ah'; in 'Aḥare' and 'Ḳedoshim' to forbidden marriages; in 'Beḥuḳḳotai' to vows; in 'Bemidbar' to the 'dine bekor'".
)והזהיר הקב"ה שכל מי שמקניה לאשתו וכו', is probably defective at the end as well as in some other passages (following the manuscript); it cannot be determined whether it covered the Book of Numbers only, or also Deuteronomy.
Zunz, who closely examined the manuscript after which the edition was subsequently printed,[4] concluded that VeHizhir and Hashkem are one and the same work.
[5] The fact that some passages quoted by the old authors from the Midrash Hashkem do not correspond entirely with the edition, and that some are not found in it at all, does not prove that these are two different works (as Freimann, Buber, and Grünhut assume).