In these verses, the angel explains to Daniel the symbolic meaning of the things he saw in his vision. The animals and horns actually represented human rulers or kingdoms. (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/jit/writing-symlanguage]])
The four horns represent the four new kingdoms. This can be made explicit. Alternate translation: "they represent the four kingdoms into which the kingdom of the first king will be divided" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-explicit]])