DAVID'S REVIEW OF THE LEGACY STANDARD BIBLE The New American Standard Bible of 1995 was revised in 2020, and while it is much easier to read, it strayed from being as literal as possible and it even used gender inclusive language. A group of scholars from Master's Seminary desired to revise the NASB 1995 and make it reflect on making it reflect the original authors rather than today's culture. The Lockman Foundation, publishers of the NASB granted the seminary permission to use the NASB 1995 and make changes to make it more literal. The new updated translation would be called the Legacy Standard Bible. I expected that the result would be something even more wooden than the NASB. To my pleasant surprise, it reads quite smoothly and used beautiful English. As for accuracy, it is very close to the original. Often a literal rendering in the NASB footnotes is placed in the text of the LSB. The rendering of a Hebrew or Greek word is more consistent when translated into English. The LSB uses footnotes to inform the reader of the slightest change from the literal rendering, which is necessary because sometimes an original language idiom makes no sense in English, much like our idiom "that was a piece of cake" would not make sense in China if literally translated in Chinese. If a idiom makes no sense in English, the LSB gives the meaning in the Bible text and puts the literal rendering in a footnote. It is good that the footnotes and the use of italics for supplied words assures the reader that the LSB translators took pains to make the translation as literally accurate as possible. There are two features that the reader will notice. The first is the literal rendering of Yahweh instead of LORD in the Old Testament. The reasoning is that God wants us to have a personal relationship with Him and use His name. I can see how that can bring one to feel closer to God. While I welcome the change, it would offend a modern Jewish audience, because they don't believe in using the holy name of God. Since the Bible is meant for all people, including Jews, I wish that they would use the word LORD, even though personally I like Yahweh in my LSB. The second feature is the use of the word "slave" instead of "servant" or "bond-servant." Of course, this may trigger horrible memories of American slavery. Of course, we need to be educated in the differences between slavery in America and that of Biblical times. And it takes little education to realize the love of God as our Master is far different than that of a cruel American slave owner. The Biblical concept of slavery should not be canceled in Bible translations over something completely different that happened over 1600 years after the last word of the Bible was written. We shouldn't whitewash any part of the Bible. Overall, I think the Legacy Standard Bible is the best all-purpose Bible I've ever read. It is the best balance in accuracy and readability. The Bible I use most is a giant print LSB with a full set of translator's footnotes and cross-references.