In a move that seems indicative of the Trump administration’s increasingly fractured relationship with the Vatican, Pete Hegseth appeared to mistake lines from a classic crime film for Scripture during a public appearance this week.

The defense secretary delivered a prayer during a livestreamed worship service at the Pentagon on Wednesday. “They call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17,” he said in his introduction of the prayer he’d been given.

However, viewers quickly noticed his words more closely echoed one of Samuel L. Jackson’s monologues from 1994’s “Pulp Fiction” than the biblical verse he’d referenced.

“The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men,” Hegseth said in part. “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.”

Watch Pete Hegseth’s prayer service below. His reference to Ezekiel 25:17 begins around the 6:56 mark.

In “Pulp Fiction,” Jackson portrays hit man Jules Winnfield, who offers a similar declaration before shooting a man to death.

“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men,” he says. “Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and goodwill, 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. 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.”

Pete Hegseth drew attention after reciting a prayer that appeared to be a version of a Bible verse performed by Samuel L. Jackson in Quentin Tarantino’s movie, "Pulp Fiction." #petehegseth

Hegseth said the prayer was recited by the “Sandy 1” combat search and rescue (CSAR) mission in Iran, and to be fair, “Pulp Fiction” writer-director Quentin Tarantino reportedly drew from a scene in the 1973 Japanese film “Bodyguard Kiba” as the basis for Jackson’s monologue.

The actual Ezekiel 25:17 passage as it appears in the King James Bible is significantly shorter than both Hegseth’s and Jackson’s, reading simply: “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.”

Hegseth has yet to address the discourse publicly. The Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, issued a statement on X Thursday acknowledging the CSAR prayer and Hegseth’s words were “obviously inspired by dialogue” in “Pulp Fiction,” but that both the prayer and the film scene 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,” he added.

Still, videos comparing Hegseth’s prayer to Jackson’s monologue went viral online and, as of Thursday, had drawn a fair number of snarky responses.

“When our leaders mix up God and a movie, in trying to suggest that God is behind them, that suggests the muddle we’re all in,” New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof wrote on X.

Journalist and author James North quipped: “The Old Testament’s ‘Book of Tarantino.’”

Hegseth’s prayer gaffe comes amid rising tensions between the Trump administration, including President Donald Trump himself, and high-ranking Catholic leaders.

On Sunday, the president deemed Pope Leo XIV “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” in a post on his Truth Social platform after the pontiff criticized both the Iran war and the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.

That same day, Trump drew further outrage when he shared what appeared to be an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ ― or, at the very least, a Christ-like figure ― on Truth Social.

Though the president argued the image was intended to depict him as a doctor, he or his team quietly deleted it after public figures on both sides of the political aisle condemned it as “blasphemous.”

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