“He
gave me this explanation: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will
appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will
devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. The
ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another
king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings.
Daniel 7:23-24
The horns
of Daniel’s visions stood for kings. A
beast represented a nation or kingdom while the horn represented a king that
rules in that nation for a specific period of time.
Why a
horn? A horn is an instrument of power
used by an animal to attack or defend, for example a rhino, ram or goat. Likewise, the king was an instrument of
power, but it could break off and be useless unless attached to the nation. So the nation powered the king and the king
made the nation powerful.