Nahum 2:1
He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily. He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.
He that dasheth in pieces is come up before the face of the city, and those within are bidden to keep the munition, watch the way, make the loins strong, and fortify power mightily for battle. The verse belongs to the prophecy of the fall of Nineveh and Assyria, fulfilled when the united power of Media, Egypt, and Babylonia brought Assyria down. That fall meant Assyria would yield to the united and superior power of her former dependencies, ending Assyrian rule over the Orient. It opened the way for Babylon to rise from vassalage to proud Nineveh to ascendancy at the time of Daniel 1.
On another reading, the verse points not only, or not at all, to ancient Nineveh, but to the future great day of the Lord. In that day the Lord Himself is the one who dashes in pieces, breaking the nations and dashing the wicked in pieces. This is because Nineveh's destruction had already occurred before the prophecy's stated date.
The surrounding scene belongs to the day of God's preparation for the second advent and judgment. The chariots moving through the broad ways and running like lightning are modern chariots, even railroad cars. Their appearance is a sign that the day of preparation is come, that the final warnings to the world are due, and that the second advent is near.