text: I like the New Revised Standard Version quite well.  When I learned some Hebrew, I soon was able to see that the NRSV was the truest to the original language and meaning.  It is not perfect, but I found it to be the most honest in conveying the original text.\n\nI have further been convinced of this because when I began to major in religious studies in college, all of my professors always recommend the NRSV because of its accuracy.  Therefore, it wasn't just me!  It apparently really is good.\n\nI also like the New Jewish Publication Society's version. \n\nThe KJV has a magnificent poetic quality that really cannot be easily replaced.  It just sounds pleasing to the ear!  And it is often the text we have memorized as children, and so nothing else sounds right sometimes.  Psalm 23 for example, just has to be KJV if you want that poetic, beautiful style.\n\nHowever, if you want a better view into what the original may have sounded like, you may be better off with NRSV.  There is no "Thou" in Hebrew.  There is just "ata."  It didn't sound flowery to the people who used it.  It sounded more like "you" sounds to us.  It is not so formal.\nThis is not to say that the original Biblical languages have no poetic value.  On the contrary, they DO, and as always it is difficult to translate poetic quality into another language.  The Hebrew loves plays on words.  You usually have to read the footnotes to catch these when you are reading a translation.