Who is Yoav, the man from the valley?

Yoav, who became known only as the Man from the Valley after his wife was killed, was a serious student of the Bible. After the death of his wife, however, Yoav lost his faith in God. He turned into a hardened warrior who wanted revenge against the Romans. Yoav punished himself by wrapping his arms in metal straps that would cut into his skin. He also refused to wear armor when going into battle almost as if he wanted to be killed. Yoav was the only warrior among those at Masada who realized it was not Adir among their ranks but instead his sister, Aziza. The Man from the Valley told Aziza that he should stand next to him when the battle began because he wanted to protect her. After Aziza saw the other warriors killing the women and children from the village while the Man from the Valley refused to do so, he was the only one that Aziza wanted to stand beside.

Although Yoav had declared he would never take another woman into his bed he was able to have a relationship with Aziza because she was something other than a woman since she’d spent several years of her childhood pretending to be a boy. The night that the Romans breached the wall at Masada, Revka knew the end was near because Yoav cut his hair, something he’d said he would never do. Yoav played an important part in the massacre because he was the one who was chosen to kill the nine assassins in charge of killing all the people at Masada. Yoav would have to kill himself, an act that was considered a sin by the Jews. Before he died, however, Yoav transferred Zara’s last breath, the one that Revka gave him just after Zara died, back to Revka so that she could have her daughter with her.