Pete Hegseth runs monthly prayer services at the Pentagon. Wednesday's edition was going fine until he opened his mouth and accidentally channeled one of the most memorable movie monologues of the 1990s.

During the worship service, Hegseth — who holds the official title Secretary of War, which tracks — introduced what he described as a prayer recited before a combat search and rescue mission to recover two U.S. Air Force crew members shot down over Iran. He said the prayer had been delivered to him by the lead mission planner and was titled "CSAR 25:17." He noted that the name, he thought, was "meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17."

He then asked everyone to pray with him. What followed, as flagged by religion newsletter A Public Witness and reported by Mediaite, was a near word-for-word recitation of the speech Jules Winnfield — Samuel L. Jackson's briefcase-toting hitman in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film "Pulp Fiction" — delivers right before he shoots someone to death.

Here is what Hegseth said, delivered at a podium inside the Department of Defense with full solemnity: "The path of the downed aviator 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 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."

And here, for comparison, is the actual Jules Winnfield speech from "Pulp Fiction": "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 you."

To be clear: the only meaningful differences are that Hegseth swapped "righteous man" for "downed aviator," "charity and good will" for "camaraderie and duty," and replaced "my name is the Lord" with "my call sign is Sandy 1." Everything else is Tarantino, who himself borrowed it from a 1970s Japanese martial arts film, according to The Daily Beast.

For those curious, the actual Ezekiel 25:17 — in the King James Bible — 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." That's the whole verse. One sentence. Not a monologue. No hitman energy. No valley of darkness. Jules Winnfield did not write the Bible, though it is clear someone in the U.S. military's combat search and rescue community has seen "Pulp Fiction" multiple times and thought this was a reasonable thing to do.

Wednesday was not Hegseth's inaugural venture into prayer-adjacent controversy. At a March 25 Pentagon service, he prayed — and again, this happened — for "overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy." He also asked God to let "every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation." So the man has range, theologically speaking.

Reaction online was swift. A Reddit post captioned "Pete Hegseth quotes fake Pulp Fiction Bible verse during Pentagon sermon" gathered more than 22,000 upvotes. One commenter wrote: "Bro, there's no way his speechwriter isn't memeing on him. This is directly from the movie, you can't mistake the cadence." Another commenter simply asked: "This is satire... isn't it?!" It was not, per Newsweek.

The Pentagon has not responded to requests for comment on the scripture situation. Hegseth has also been facing a longshot impeachment effort from House Democrats over his conduct leading the Pentagon, with articles filed this week — timing that means the Secretary of War had quite a Wednesday.

"Say what again. Say. What. Again." The Lord did not say this. Neither, technically, did the Bible. But someone at the Pentagon podium sure did.