What are your favorite Bible translations/paraphrases?

[useful idiot]

I've used three translations as my primary Bible: the ESV, NASB, and NIV. The ESV is too political and driven by complementarianism for my taste. Its commitment to preserving patriarchal language is misleading (as misleading as the NRSV's gender-inclusiveness can be), and the fact that it's used and endorsed by guys I'm not fond of led to me switching away from it. I moved to the NASB, which my church uses, but it is just too woodenly literal; it's nearly impossible to read aloud without tripping over one's words. I disliked the old NIV but I think the new one (2011 update) is fantastic. I have yet to find a rendering I substantially disagree with in it, and although it over-interprets occasionally, I think it strikes an amazing balance with regards to gender and theologically sensitive passages. I take it to Bible studies and to church, and do my casual reading out of it.

When I want a formal-equivalence translation, or am doing any serious study, I'll compare it with the NASB and NRSV. I still use my ESV Study Bible as a quick reference for a conservative-leaning evangelical interpretation of a passage, and I use a New Interpreter's Study Bible (NRSV) for a moderate interpretation. I suppose if I wanted a thoroughly Historical-Critical study Bible I could shell out for a Harper-Collins Study Bible, but I don't really see a need when I can grab a liberal commentary from Liberty University's library here in town.

As for paraphrases, I love the Message, as Eugene Peterson is probably my favorite writer. If I'm studying a passage I will read it out of the Message just for kicks.

KJV for pleasure reading, NSRV for scholarly citation.

NSRV sometimes goes a bit too far for me, like rendering "Leviathan" as "crocodile."  Crocodiles don't breathe fire.

My NRSV says Leviathan, in Job, Psalms, and Isaiah

[useful idiot]

I probably actually read the New English Translation the most, just because that's the translation the app I have on my iPod uses alongside the KJV.

That's actually a great translation, and if you go on its website (net.bible.org), the notes that accompany the text are absolute gold. They are translational rather than interpretational, so they tell you why they chose to translate a certain word or phrase in a certain way, for almost every verse, and give you the possible alternatives. The notes are also great for comparing translations, so even if you're not using the NET, you can still look at the NET's note for the particular verse you want info for. It's all right there.

BTW, get the YouVersion app, it has almost every translation on it, including the NLT (another good translation), which you said you use.

[useful idiot]

I think I downloaded that one but it ran kind of weird, only tried for a few minutes though. This is the one I have now: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/holy-bible/id291877741?mt=8

The NET and NLT actually aren't too far off, so whenever the person speaking ever says that they didn't get a missal printed in time or they changed their sermon at the last minute so the verses on it aren't relating to it (there's one guy who does this a lot) and then they'll just put the usually NLT verses on the screen I usually just read it off my iPod instead, and they're never too far off. What I like about the above app is the KJV translation it has running aside the NET by default does the words of Jesus in red thing, so you can notice that even if reading the NET side.

Gotcha, yeah I haven't used it for the ipod, only for my android phone. Don't get too fond of the KJV, you might turn into a fundamentalist...