To those who are hungry I set before you a feast that will be released in October. I am so excited about this. The ESV bible is my translation of preference for two reasons. One, it's a word-for-word translation rather than a thought-for-thought translation. The difference is pretty obvious. Here is an explanation from the intro to the ESV: "The ESV is an 'essentially literal' translation that seeks as far as possible to capture the precise wording of the original text and the personal style of each Bible writer. As such, its emphasis is on 'word-for-word' correspondence, at the same time taking into account differences of grammar, syntax, and idiom between current literary English and the original languages. Thus it seeks to be transparent to the original text, letting the reader see as directly as possible the structure and meaning of the original...A thought-for-thought translation is of necessity more inclined to reflect the interpretive opinions of the translator and the influences of contemporary culture." The other reason is that it is readable. Again from the intro: "As an essentially literal translation, then, the ESV seeks to carry over every possible nuance of meaning in the original words of Scripture into our own language." I am by no means advocating that thought-for-thought translations are of no use. In fact I have one, the New Living Tranlation. But if I'm going to study or read, I'm going to use the ESV. You can read more about it here.