These were the living creatures that I saw underneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar: This sentence repeats the second part of verse 15 (see the comments there). It adds the information that the living creatures were underneath the God of Israel. This phrase that may be rendered literally, or in some languages it may be better to say “who were holding up [or, carrying] the God of Israel.” Despite the minor differences in the description of the creatures here with those in chapter 1, Ezekiel was convinced they were the same creatures.

And I knew that they were cherubim: In verse 2 God called the living creatures that Ezekiel was looking at cherubim. Some scholars claim that was how he knew they were called cherubim. It is also possible that he did not fully recognize them in the first vision, and it was only when he saw them again, perhaps from closer up, that he recognized what the creatures actually were. Translations that use the same term for the cherubim in this chapter as they used for the “living creatures” in chapter 1 (for example, Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version) tend to obscure this element of recognition. Consequently, even where the same term is used, it is advisable to retain the term cherubim in this verse (either in its Hebrew plural form “cherubim,” or in an appropriate plural form, such as “cherubs”). Here the translation “living creatures called cherubim” fits well (see 9.3).

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .