Nephi quotes again from the prophet Zenos (cf. 1 Nephi 22:15, 23), just as Malachi would do some two hundred years hence (see Malachi 4:1).
In this case, however, Nephi applies Zeno’s prophecy of the destruction of the wicked at the time of the second coming of Christ to the cataclysms preceding his appearance to the Nephites.
In so doing, Nephi utilizes one of his own cardinal principles of scriptural interpretation, that of likening the scriptures and making application of one oracle to separate but related events.