+698+. _Semitic._ The material for the Semitic religions on this point is scanty.[1189] The Arabic divine names supposed by Nöldeke to represent abstractions are Manāt (fate), Sa'd (fortune), Ruḍā (favor), Wadd (love), Manāf (height), 'Auḍ (time). Whether these are all abstract terms is doubtful. _Wadd_ means also 'lover,' divine friend or patron. _Sa'd_ occurs as adjective 'fortunate,' is the appellation of certain stars, and the god Sa'd is identified by an Arab poet with a certain rock[1190]--the rock is doubtless an old local divinity. _Ruḍā_ is found apparently only as a divine name (in Palmyrene and Safa inscriptions and as a god of an Arabian tribe)--the form may be concrete, in the sense of 'favoring,' divine patron. As "time" (_dahr_, _zaman_) often occurs in Arabic poetry in the sense of 'fate,' the god 'Auḍ may be an embodiment of this conception.[1191] _Manāf_, if understood, as is possible, in the sense 'high place,' is not abstract but concrete, though in that case the original reference of the term is not clear. +699+. Manāt is one of the three great goddesses of Mecca, the others being Al-Lât ('the goddess') and Al-Uzza ('the mighty one'); as these two names are concrete, there is a certain presumption that _Manāt_ likewise is concrete. The original meaning of the word is obscure. It does not occur as a common noun, but from the same stem come terms meaning 'doom, death,'[1192] and, if it be allied to these, it would be an expression for 'fate' (like _'Auḍ_). However, the stem is used in the sense 'number, determine, assign,' and Manāt may be the divine determiner of human destinies. From this same stem comes the Biblical _Meni_, and apparently the Assyrian _Manu_.[1193] The ordinary North Semitic conception of the source of human destinies is that they are determined by the gods and written on tablets or in a book,[1194] and the same conception may have existed in the South Semitic area.[1195] The other deity mentioned in Isaiah lxv, 11, is Gad; the word means in Arabic and Hebrew 'fortune, good fortune,' and occurs as the name of a deity in Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions, but the data are not sufficient to fix its original sense. It is the name of a Hebrew tribe, which is perhaps so called from the tribal god, and the name of a tribal god is probably concrete.[1196] +700+. It seems, then, that for most if not all of the names of the Semitic deities just mentioned abstract senses, though possible, are not certain. Nöldeke remarks that most of these terms are poetical--they may be ornate epithets given to old concrete divine figures, in which case the real cults were attached to these latter and not to abstractions. It must be regarded as doubtful whether Semitic religion created any abstract deity.