Hebrew-English Bible NASB

The bible is good, but it does not spell out the Hebrew words

Love this bible. It's the one I use all the time despite having many translations.I find it great because the NAS is close to the original but sometimes it's not easy to get your head around. Glancing over at the message can really help it to make more sense of the general theme that is going on. If you're not a message fan though, don't bother!

Only three stars?The Bible itself is well made and a similar size to a number of study Bibles I own.My wife had a Message New Testament and I favour the NASB. She wanted a complete Message Bible as she liked the "Off the Wall" thought for thought / dynamic type of translation while I prefer a more literal translation and thought we could both benefit from another perspective, so we purchased one for each of us.To speak plainly, the Message is not a translation, it is one man's interpretation which is then paraphased, for the most part this works but there are just too many times when liberties are taken with the text to cause the reader to not just bounce off the wall but to slam into said wall and then slide down into a broken heap at the bottom of it. Having the NASB on the opposite page really shows it up for the poor rendition of God's Word that it is. To be frank, the Message is not sufficiently accurate to be even a thought for thought translation. It simply adds volume and weight, neither of which are desired in a Bible.I have trained in Bible translation with New Tribes Mission and know what a good translation needs to accomplish and this it does not achieve. Only half of this book could in all honesty be called a Bible translation and three stars is more than it deserves. Harsh? Yes, and deservedly so. Only the fact that the NASB is part of this package warrents the stars it has.Stick to the NASB alone if you desire a good accurate translation, save yourself some disappointment, weight, space and a bit of a tree.Carl, just journeying through.