🐂💩

 Now they done pissed me off:

APP. RawStory "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," Parnell wrote.

"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," he added. "Anyone saying the Secretary misquoted Ezekiel 25:17 is peddling fake news and ignorant of reality."

Ezekiel 25:

The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them. 3 Say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Sovereign Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you said “Aha!” over my sanctuary when it was desecrated and over the land of Israel when it was laid waste and over the people of Judah when they went into exile, 4 therefore I am going to give you to the people of the East as a possession. They will set up their camps and pitch their tents among you; they will eat your fruit and drink your milk. 5 I will turn Rabbah into a pasture for camels and Ammon into a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the Lord. 6 For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet, rejoicing with all the malice of your heart against the land of Israel, 7 therefore I will stretch out my hand against you and give you as plunder to the nations. I will wipe you out from among the nations and exterminate you from the countries. I will destroy you, and you will know that I am the Lord.’”

A Prophecy Against Moab

8 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘Because Moab and Seir said, “Look, Judah has become like all the other nations,” 9 therefore I will expose the flank of Moab, beginning at its frontier towns—Beth Jeshimoth, Baal Meon and Kiriathaim—the glory of that land. 10 I will give Moab along with the Ammonites to the people of the East as a possession, so that the Ammonites will not be remembered among the nations; 11 and I will inflict punishment on Moab. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’”

A Prophecy Against Edom

12 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘Because Edom took revenge on Judah and became very guilty by doing so, 13 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will stretch out my hand against Edom and kill both man and beast. I will lay it waste, and from Teman to Dedan they will fall by the sword. 14 I will take vengeance on Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they will deal with Edom in accordance with my anger and my wrath; they will know my vengeance, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”

A Prophecy Against Philistia

15 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘Because the Philistines acted in vengeance and took revenge with malice in their hearts, and with ancient hostility sought to destroy Judah, 16 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to stretch out my hand against the Philistines, and I will wipe out the Kerethites and destroy those remaining along the coast. 17 I will carry out great vengeance on them and punish them in my wrath. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I take vengeance on them.’”

(NIV. Not my first choice of translations, but easy to copy online.)

And here’s the “prayer” again:

“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,” Hegseth said, according to the report.

Nothing in Ezekiel 25 about shepherds or valleys or children or being a brother’s keeper. That last is ironic; it echoes the cry of Cain trying to dodge responsibility for killing his brother, Abel (“Am I my brother’s keeper?”). The shepherd image shows up in the gospels, but the most familiar reference is the 23rd Psalm. Which Ezekiel doesn’t reference, any more than he references Cain. “Valley of darkness” sounds like the 23rd, too. It sounds nothing like Ezekiel 25.

God is pronouncing judgement on the nations that danced in Israel’s grave after the fall of Jerusalem and the Exile into Babylon. As Walker Percy once asked: where are the Moabites now? Or the Philistines, the Edomites, the Ammonites? This is God bracing up Israel for what it has been through. Is it kindly? No. Is it of s piece with Samuel L. Jackson’s character’s use of it in “Pulp Fiction”? Also: no.

I’m not here to exegete this chapter and place it in the context of the book of Ezekiel, or the history of the Exile. I highlighted the last “prophecy” because v. 17 is clearly a summing up of the chapter. And nothing in that chapter is a prayer.

I’m just here to say Hegseth and his PR toady are full of shit. They quoted a “prayer” (I’d never call it that) from a movie that Tarantino took from a Japanese movie. Yeah, deeply grounded in the words of Ezekiel. Tarantino added the verse to make his version sound Biblical. Because he knew it wasn’t.

“Reflects” Ezekiel 25:17?  🐂 💩