WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a prayer at a Pentagon worship service on Wednesday for search-and-rescue crews that closely matched dialogue spoken by Samuel L. Jackson's character Jules Winnfield in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction. Hegseth said the prayer was based on Ezekiel 25:17, the same biblical passage the fictional character claims to quote in the movie.

"They call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17," Hegseth said before reciting the prayer: "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 One when I lay my vengeance upon thee."

In Pulp Fiction, Jackson's character recites a similar passage: "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities 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." The film's version, written by director Quentin Tarantino, was itself drawn from the 1973 Japanese martial arts film Bodyguard Kiba and does not correspond to the actual text of Ezekiel 25:17. The actual verse 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."

The military adaptation, known as Prayer CSAR 25:17, circulates in military circles and was read to crews that rescued an Air Force colonel from an Iranian mountain this month after his fighter jet was shot down. Hegseth holds worship services at the Pentagon to bless the Iran war effort.

Pentagon press secretary Sean Parnell posted on X on Thursday at lunchtime acknowledging that the prayer was inspired by the Pulp Fiction dialogue. "Anyone saying the Secretary misquoted Ezekiel 25:17 is peddling fake news and ignorant of reality," Parnell said.

On Thursday morning during a press briefing on the progress of the Iran war, Hegseth invoked the Bible and likened the media to Pharisees. "I sat there in church and I thought: 'Our press are just like these Pharisees. The hardened hearts of our press are calibrated only to impugn,'" he said. He accused the media of constant negativity about the Iran war.

Before becoming defense secretary, Hegseth served as a weekend television host. The overlap between his prayer and the film's dialogue was first identified by the religion and politics blog A Public Witness.