Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a prayer during a Pentagon worship service in Arlington, Virginia. But it didn’t take long for people online to notice something odd: he was reciting the famous Ezekiel 25:17 speech from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, not the real Bible verse. Clips of his prayer, set side by side with Samuel L. Jackson’s iconic scene from the film, started popping up all over social media.
Hegseth said he got the prayer from the main planner of a combat search-and-rescue mission that saved two Air Force crew members shot down over Iran. “They call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is a nod to Ezekiel 25:17,” he explained, then read the prayer out loud.
What he recited, though, was almost word-for-word the same speech Samuel L. Jackson’s character delivers in Pulp Fiction, with a few tweaks to fit the military setting. Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary wrote those lines for the film’s opening, and in the movie, Jackson’s character claims it’s a Bible verse before killing a terrified young man.
Hegseth’s version finished like this: “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, and amen.”
In the actual Bible, that spot would say “I am the Lord” instead of the call sign line, so that bit comes straight from the Pulp Fiction script, not scripture.
For the record, the real Ezekiel 25:17 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 rest is Tarantino’s invention, created for a scene about a gangster getting ready to shoot someone. All the while, Hegseth didn’t mention anything about the movie during the service. He actually told the audience that worship should shape both military and policy decisions.
Internet Reacts to Pete Hegseth Reciting the Pulp Fiction Bible Verse at the Pentagon in Virginia
The reactions ranged from disbelief to genuine philosophical crisis. “Pulp Fiction ‘Bible verse’ at the Pentagon like no one would notice… we are really living in a clown show,” one person wrote. Another connected it to recent tensions with the Vatican: “Hahaha, coming from the administration who told the Pope to stay out of politics. This legitimately could be an SNL skit.”
The cinematic comparisons kept coming. “At this rate, we should probably check his next speech for lines from Gladiator or Top Gun,” one commenter said. Another went straight to the theological attribution question: “So… Ezekiel or Tarantino, who gets the credit here?”
One reply captured the mood of the wider thread: “How is this real life?”
The clip is going viral because it’s odd for a Cabinet official to be up on stage at a government worship service reciting what he claims is a prayer. But anyone who has seen Pulp Fiction instantly recognizes those words as movie dialogue, not scripture.
