Hegseth Channels Tarantino at Prayer Service

Pete Hegseth led a prayer service at the Pentagon Wednesday and ended up channeling Quentin Tarantino in his quoted passage. It's caused all kinds of chatter about the 1994 film Pulp Fiction. During the service, Hegseth cited a prayer recited by the Sandy 1 rescue team before its successful mission to rescue a downed pilot, reports USA Today.

• Hegseth: "They call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17. 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.'"

• Movie: The passage is strikingly similar to one delivered by the character Jules in Pulp Fiction, notes Mediaite. "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."
• Bible: 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."
• One take: So did Hegseth know his version was based on one from a movie? Unclear. "To be fair, the Secretary was clearly aware the quote isn't an exact word-for-word Bible quote given the references to a downed aviator and 'Sandy 1,'" writes James Hibbard at the Hollywood Reporter. "The man, like Jules, probably thought it just sounded like a Bible-inspired 'cold-blooded thing to say' without being aware it was largely a Hollywood creation."
• For the record: Tarantino has said he largely cribbed his version from yet another movie, a 1973 Japanese martial arts flick called Bodyguard Kiba, notes Variety. Which appears to make this a long game of Bible-passage telephone: First came the original, then the modified film version in 1973, then Tarantino's modified version of the 1973 version in 1994, then the rescue team's modified version of Tarantino's version.