Other Recensions
Large portions of this midrash are contained in Deut. R., ed. Wilna, xi. 4, 7, 8, 9 (?), and 10, where they must be regarded as later additions. The entire passage represented by paragraphs 9 and 10 of Deut. R. xi. is found also, combined in the same manner, in Yalḳ., Deut. 940 (on Deut. xxxi. 14), where the Midrash Peṭirat Mosheh is given as the source. Sifre 305 contains an exquisite little aggadah on Moses and the angel of death (comp. Pesiḳ. p. 199b; Deut. R. xi. 5). A long citation from the beginning of the midrash is also contained in a homily in Tan., Wa'etḥanan, 6 (on Deut. iii. 26), treating of the same theme, the death of Moses.
A second recension is based on Prov. xxxi. 39, and is considered by Adolf Jellinek, but probably incorrectly, to be the older. It was edited by him in B. H. vi. 71-78, and has an entirely different beginning from that which is found in the other recension (comp. Deut. R. xi. 3). As it is based upon a defective manuscript, the manner in which this introduction was connected with the original midrash can not be determined; but what follows the missing portion does not differ essentially from that found in the first recension, although it is somewhat shorter and is changed in arrangement. Moses' lament that he may never taste the fruits of the land receives a long explanatory addition to the effect that he grieved not for the products of the earth, but because he would be unable to fulfill the divine commands pertaining to the Land of Israel.
A third recension or revision of the midrash was published by Gilbert Gaulmyn (Paris, 1692), together with a Latin language translation and the first recension. In the Assumptio Mosis the manuscript ends abruptly before the account of the assumption from which that work receives its name. According to Emil Schürer, this concluding portion must have related to the dispute of the archangel Michael with Satan, mentioned in Jude 9.
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