Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth read a made-up Bible quote from Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 movie *Pulp Fiction* during a prayer event at the Pentagon on Wednesday.
He was talking about the recent rescue mission for a pilot who had been shot down in Iran.
Hegseth, as first reported by A Public Witness, a religious-themed blog, asked his audience to pray with him, saying the prayer was used at the start of the mission.
“This prayer was recited by Sandy 1, which is one of the Sandies, to all Sandies, all those A-10 crews, prior to all CSAR missions, but especially this CSAR mission, which happened in real time,” Hegseth said. “They call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17.”
He continued:
So the prayer is CSAR 25:17 and it reads, and pray with me please, “The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of camaraderie and duty shepherds the lost through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother, and you will know my call sign is Sandy 1 when I lay my vengeance upon thee. Amen.”
Although the prayer didn’t seem similar to Ezekiel 25:17, which in the King James Bible reads, “And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them,” it closely resembled a fake version of that verse that actor Samuel L. Jackson used in *Pulp Fiction* before his character kills someone.
In the movie, Jackson says, “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.
Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon thee.”
Tarantino got this fake Bible verse from a 1970s Japanese martial arts film called *Bodyguard Kiba*.
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