Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA) confronted Pete Hegseth on a fake Bible quote that the defense secretary read during a Pentagon prayer service earlier this month, which was lifted from Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film Pulp Fiction.

The moment came on Wednesday as Hegseth faced Carbajal and the rest of the House Armed Services Committee to testify on the Pentagon’s 2027 budget.

As Carbajal began his questioning, he said, “I recently realized that we have something in common. I’m also a fan of Pulp Fiction. And no, the movie is not an accurate portrayal of the Bible.”

Smirking, Carbajal added: “You know what I’m talking about.”

During the prayer service on April 15, Hegseth (as first flagged by A Public Witness, a religion-themed Substack) urged his audience to join him in a prayer, which he said was delivered at the beginning of a mission to rescue a downed pilot in Iran during the early days of the war.

“They call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17,” Hegseth said at the time.

He went on:

So the prayer is CSAR 25:17 and it reads, and pray with me please, “The path of the downed aviator 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 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. Amen.

In the King James Bible, Ezekiel 25:17, simply 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.”

But Hegseth’s words bore a strong resemblance to the fake version of Ezekiel 25:17, strikingly delivered in Pulp Fiction by Samuel L. Jackson in a performance that earned him an Oscar nomination.

Carbajal went on to rebuke Hegseth over rising costs related to the Iran war and flu shots for soldiers.

It’s not the first time that Hegseth and Carbajal have clashed on Capitol Hill.

Last year, Carbajal called Hegseth “an embarrassment to this country” as the former Fox News host testified before the committee, adding, “You should just get the hell out and let somebody competently lead this department.”

Invoking those remarks during Wednesday’s hearing, Carbajal told a smiling Hegseth, “You were incompetent then, you’re incompetent now, and you’re the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to incompetence.”

Watch above via C-SPAN3.

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