{"id":396257,"date":"2026-04-17T02:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T02:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/396257\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T02:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T02:16:17","slug":"pete-hegseth-reads-fake-pulp-fiction-bible-quote-during-prayer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/396257\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth Reads Fake Pulp Fiction Bible Quote During Prayer Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPete Hegseth \u2014 always ready to get medieval on someone\u2019s ass \u2014 quoted a fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction<\/a> while leading a prayer service at the Pentagon on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Secretary of War cited an iconic and not-actually-biblical monologue from Quentin Tarantino\u2019s beloved 1994 film. It\u2019s the speech given by fearsome hitman Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) to his victims right before he murders them. <\/p>\n

\n\tHegseth sets up the quote by saying it was a prayer recited by Sandy 1 \u2014 one of the US Air Force\u00a0Combat Search and Rescue teams involved in the rather extraordinary rescue of a U.S. Air Force airman who was trapped behind enemy lines in Iran earlier this month. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17,\u201d Hegseth told his audience (video below). \u201cIt reads \u2014 and pray with me please \u2014 \u2018the 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\u2019s 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tEzekiel 25:17 actually just reads, \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe quote was expanded greatly by Tarantino and Roger Avary for Pulp Fiction, where Jules famously says, \u201cThe 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesman, released a statement on X<\/a> Thursday, writing, \u201cSecretary Hegseth on Wednesday shared a custom prayer, referenced as the CSAR prayer, used by the brave warfighters of Sandy-1 who led the daylight rescue mission of Dude 44 Alpha out of Iran, which was obviously inspired by dialogue in Pulp Fiction. However, both the CSAR prayer and the dialogue in Pulp Fiction were reflections of the verse Ezekiel 25:17, as Secretary Hegseth clearly said in his remarks at the prayer service. Anyone saying the Secretary misquoted Ezekiel 25:17 is peddling fake news and ignorant of reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTo be fair, the Secretary was clearly aware the quote isn\u2019t an exact word-for-word Bible quote given the references to a downed aviator and \u201cSandy 1.\u201d The man, like Jules, probably thought it just sounded like a Bible-inspired \u201ccold-blooded thing to say\u201d without being aware it was largely a Hollywood creation. It\u2019s a good thing the airman was rescued quickly and wasn\u2019t captured by the enemy, though, lest Hegseth end up reciting Christopher Walken\u2019s gold watch speech.<\/p>\n

\n\t
April 18, 5:26 p.m. Updated with Sean Parnell\u2019s statement. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth \u2014 always ready to get medieval on someone\u2019s ass \u2014 quoted a fake Bible verse from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,78476,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-396257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-pulp-fiction","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}