Much has been written and said about last Wednesday’s Pentagon worship service. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth offered a prayer adapted from what he seemed to think was Ezekiel 25:17 to valorize the rescue mission in Iran the week before.
Numerous questions have been raised: Did Hegseth know that the passage in focus was actually written by Quentin Tarantino for the movie Pulp Fiction, not Ezekiel 25:17? Why is there a worship service at the Pentagon? What role is Christianity playing in the Defense Department’s language about the Iran war?
These are all important, but something else stands out to me: Hegseth even gets the Pulp Fiction version of Ezekiel 25:17 wrong.
The Righteous Path
For those who have never seen Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film Pulp Fiction, the story follows several characters with various storylines. At times, these characters cross paths, often violently. Two of the primary characters are hitmen Jules Winnfield (played by Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (played by John Travolta).
The film’s version of Ezekiel 25:17 is quoted by Winnfield twice. In the first, he and Vega are recovering property stolen from their employer before punishing the thieves for their crime and betrayal. After securing the missing property, Winnfield begins to recite in front of the thieves a passage that he ascribes to Ezekiel 25:17:
“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 goodwill, shepherds the weak through the valley of the 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 I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.”
As Winnfield concludes the passage, he and Vega raise their guns and kill the thieves in a climax of violence for which Tarantino has become quite famous.
Whether Hegseth knew that this quotation was from Pulp Fiction or not, it seems that such a scene is what he had in mind. After all, one of his favorite words to describe the American military is lethality. What better scripture is there for a worship service in the Pentagon than something that precedes a cold-blooded killing?
And yet, if we stop there, we do not see the whole picture. There is, in fact, another place in the film where Winnfield invokes this passage.
‘Ezekiel’ Revisited
In the film’s final scene, Winnfield and Vega enter a breakfast diner. The time since the earlier execution has taken them on quite a journey—one that has convinced Winnfield that he should leave the hitman profession altogether, saying that he plans to “wander the earth,” doing so until “God puts me where he wants me to be.”
At this time, a robbery is initiated by two minor characters we meet at the film’s outset. They begin collecting wallets and purses from diner patrons, as well as cash from the register.
Despite handing over his wallet, Winnfield initially refuses to hand over the stolen property from earlier, but eventually he gains the upper hand on Ringo, one of the robbers. After de-escalating the situation (albeit while pointing a gun at Ringo), the two of them proceed to talk.
Winnfield says he does not want to kill Ringo and his partner (even though that would have been his normal inclination). Instead, he wants to help them.
Winnfield gives Ringo the money from his wallet and says that he is buying Ringo’s life. Then he asks if Ringo reads the Bible. Not regularly, says Ringo. Winnfield then quotes his memorized version of the Ezekiel 25:17 passage. He says that even though he has been reciting this passage for years, often before killing someone, he had never considered what it meant.
But he says that has changed. The path of his life has now taken a different course. So he begins offering possible interpretations of the passage:
Maybe Ringo is the evil man, Winnfield is the righteous man, and the pistol between them is the shepherd protecting Winnfield in the valley of darkness.
Maybe Ringo is the righteous man, Winnfield is the shepherd, and the world is evil and selfish.
While Winnfield admits that he likes that option, he eventually declares: “The truth is you’re the weak. And I’m the tyranny of evil men. But I’m tryin’, Ringo. I’m tryin’ real hard… to be the shepherd.”
Winnfield then lays down his gun, and after a pregnant moment, he bids Ringo to leave, showing him mercy and offering a sign that his life has departed from the way of violence.
Like Winnfield’s earlier recitations, this insight is what Hegseth misses. Hegseth sees a divine sanction of violence that providentially authorizes his military movements and justifies his death-dealing.
However, within a movie like Pulp Fiction, thoroughly characterized by violence (and sometimes in a grotesque manner), we find that truly pondering and considering this passage (even though it is not actually Ezekiel 25:17) does not end with lethality but mercy.
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Derek C. Hatch is Professor of Religion and Endowed Chair of Baptist Studies at Georgetown College.