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He literally did.
Reported here:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/16/hegseth-pulp-fiction-ezekiel-prayer
here:
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/pete-hegseth-pulp-fiction-fake-bible-verse-prayer-service-1236723446/
and here:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2026/04/16/did-pete-hegseths-prayer-sound-like-pulp-fiction-quote-heres-why/89639322007/
Hegseth's quote:
""The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men," Hegseth said.
"Blessed is he who, in the name of camaraderie and duty, shepherd 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, and amen," he added."
The line from Pulp Fiction which is not actually in the bible:
" “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities 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 you.”"
The ACTUAL Ezekiel 25:17 reads:
"17 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 additions Hegseth made were completely written for Pulp Fiction, he's just that stupid.
Jordan, your own Guardian article:
And please read the quote from him in my comment.
Unless you're insisting that CSAR 25:17 isn't a real thing that was used and Petey made it up himself, he did not adapt it or claim to have adapted it. That's not what an adaptation is; that's rereading somebody else's quote, which he sourced to USAF pilots.
If I quote something verbatim you've said and atrribute it to you, that's not an adaptation; that's a quote.
Read what he actually said which is a line by line lift from Pulp Fiction. He's too stupid to realize it's from Pulp Fiction.
Whether or not it's CSAR 25:17 is not relevant, the original source is, in fact, Pulp Fiction.
Yes, he didn't realize it's from Pulp Fiction. I show as much in the linked comment. Since apparently nobody's willing to even check a link anymore, here's (nearly) the entire comment verbatim:
If you think that means "Pete Hegseth adapted it" and not "Pete Hegseth quoted an adaptation of it he didn't write and acknowledged as much but didn't realize what the chain of sources looked like", then I have no idea at all what to tell you. It's beyond a clear-cut lie, and people on Lemmy still want to argue over it for some reason.
If you don't think that, then I have zero idea why you're trying to explain something I already explained more concisely in the linked comment nobody will bother to read.
You're being incredibly picky on one line in the article that he adapted it when it was already adapted. The headline is correct, "Hegseth reads fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction during Pentagon sermon".
He read it. And it's of course fake. I'm gonna say he had to know it was based on pulp fiction and not based on Ezekiel.
And even more absurd, he read it during a Christian prayer to a Christian congregation (also fucked up that this was at the Pentagon). He's willfully combining made up I'm 14 and edgy shit with actual religion, in a public and government setting. This is the epitome of a teenager talking smack on call of duty, except it's in public during official business.
I mean hey, I'm elated that this is an actual debatable opinion instead of insisting "no, bro, he totally adapted it". I don't assume he knew it was adapted from Pulp Fiction and not directly adapted from the Bible, because I have no way to know if he's watched Pulp Fiction or would even remember that quote. If he thought it went Ezekiel 25:17 –> CSAR 25:17, he would just accordingly assume the USAF piled on a bunch of stuff from the original – no different than Pulp Fiction already did. It's not impossible, but I have zero reason to assume it by default. If you think that he knew, god bless you, that's also a valid opinion, and I'm not going to stop you from assuming the worst of Kegsbreath.
As for being "picky" over "he adapted it", this isn't just a line (although it'd still be a blatant lie if it were); it's the subheader of the article, which, if you're not that familiar with journalism (not a dig; some people just aren't), is supposed to quickly summarize the piece/supplement the headline in a way that'd be too lengthy for the headline. The subheader is literally, in clear English, claiming that Pete Hegseth modified the quote himself, which is a complete load of disinformative bullshit just meant to make him look worse when this clear violation of separation of church and state is already plenty bad.
There's not much more to say. You basically found something that's barely more than a typo (they should have added another "read", but it's fully explained in the article).
All you need to say was "in case you read only the subheader, he didn't adapt it, it was already adapted" but instead you're running around screaming at everyone and everything "Lies lies it's all lies! Everything is lies! Don't believe anything! Shit rag! Disinformation!"
Mmmmmhhhhhmmmm. So I'm naïve to assume Pete Hegseth might not be big into Pulp Fiction, but I'm getting all picky with Middle East Eye instead of following these ridiculous mental gymnastics to arrive at a completely undeserved good-faith conclusion.
Hilarious.