A prayer delivered by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a Pentagon worship service has drawn attention after appearing to echo a famous monologue from the 1994 film Pulp Fiction rather than a passage from the Bible.
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Hegseth led the prayer on Wednesday while discussing the Sandy 1 rescue mission, an operation earlier this month that retrieved downed pilots stranded in Iran. He told the audience that the prayer — which he called “CSAR 25:17”, referring to Combat Search and Rescue — was intended to reflect the biblical verse Ezekiel 25:17.
However, viewers noted that the wording closely resembled the fictional version of the verse recited by a character in Pulp Fiction, spoken by actor Samuel L. Jackson.
Prayer tied to rescue mission
During the service, Hegseth said the prayer had been delivered at the start of the Sandy 1 mission and invited the audience to repeat it with him.
“The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil man,” he said. “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.”
He continued: “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.”
Hegseth described the prayer as a reference to Ezekiel 25:17, a verse from the Hebrew Bible.
Differences from the biblical verse
The wording of the biblical passage differs significantly from the prayer used in the service. In most translations, 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.”
By contrast, the speech in Pulp Fiction includes additional lines not found in scripture. In the film, Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Jules Winnfield, recites a stylised version of the verse before killing an adversary.
The fictional passage begins: “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men,” and continues with several lines describing a protector guiding the weak “through the valley of darkness”.
Similarities noted by viewers
Observers quickly pointed out the similarities between Hegseth’s prayer and the film’s monologue. While some wording was altered to reference aviators and military duty, much of the phrasing followed the structure of the speech delivered in the Quentin Tarantino film.
In the movie, the character concludes the monologue with the line: “And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.”
Hegseth’s version instead referenced the Sandy 1 call sign used in the rescue operation.
The Pentagon has not publicly commented on the comparisons.
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Adapted by ASEAN Now. Source 17 April 2026
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