Todd Spangler, Variety:

In a prayer delivered by [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth during a Pentagon worship service on Wednesday, he read a fake Bible verse from Tarantino’s 1994 “Pulp Fiction.” It was the altered version of Ezekiel 25:17 that is righteously delivered by Samuel L. Jackson’s character in the movie just before he shoots a man to death. […]

What Hegseth read was nearly word-for-word the line delivered by Jules Winnfield, Jackson’s hitman in “Pulp Fiction” […]

Timestamped video, via Defense Now.

Later, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell attempted to clarify:

Secretary 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.

First, yes, I recognize the utter inanity of the Secretary of Defense quoting Bible verses—real or otherwise—at a military “prayer service.”

Second, Hegseth absolutely misquoted Ezekiel 25:17, and I’m not sure he knows he did so.

Hegseth said the prayer was “delivered from the lead mission planner of Sandy-1,” the rescue mission that located and extracted the Air Force members who were shot down over Iran. He says, with a slight chuckle—as the audience chuckles along—that he thinks it “is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17.”

What I think happened: The Sandy-1 planner obviously and deliberately appropriated the Pulp Fiction quote and altered it to fit their mission. They then shared it with Hegseth, expecting him to appreciate the artful alterations to the well-known speech. Hegseth, apparently devoid of any culture, didn’t recognize it as a Pulp Fiction reference, and presumed it to be a lightly revised version of the actual Ezekiel 25:17.

Had his spokesperson simply left his statement as the “custom prayer … was obviously inspired by dialogue in Pulp Fiction,” and added “which Secretary Hegseth delivered with a chuckle,” then, despite Hegseth’s earnest delivery, there’d be plausible deniability, and this would have been simply one more example of Hegseth’s use of inappropriately violent imagery. But since no one in this administration can be wrong (and not just “not wrong,” but “arguably right”), the statement had to include a positive spin on Hegseth’s flub.

A heads-up for Whiskey Pete: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.… smelled like… victory” is not the heroic quote you think it is.