I haven’t encountered an English translation that didn’t have significant issues. Even well-meaning editions lose a lot in translation. There has long been a stigmatic fear of “changing the meaning” of scripture, which results in a dogmatic use of formal equivalence. The problem with that approach is that language doesn’t work like that, so a translation that is annotatively correct will always be deeply connotatively incorrect.
WEB is one of the better ones - like a Young’s Literal but more readable - but even it falls victim to its own formal equivalence. I strongly recommend taking some courses on Koine and reading the original texts. If you want to read Hebrew texts (such as the Dead Sea scrolls), you can see if your local Jewish temple or community offers Hebrew classes (usually very inexpensive). There are lots of handy interactive interlinear tools available as well.
KJV is great but I've been using the NKJV recently because I purchased an Orthodox Study Bible.
Ha. Nicely done thou good and faithful servant…
I an not an expert, just a casual reader. I like World English Bible (WEB) bible so far. It's in modern English, free and available in all formats.
In English
KJV for its “poetic-ness” NRSV for reading
