ESV Bible Verse of the Day

About the English Standard Version

The English Standard Version, published in 2001, sits deliberately between the King James Version's word-for-word tradition and the NIV's more readable phrasing. Translators describe the method as 'essentially literal': it preserves the sentence structure and wording of the original Hebrew and Greek wherever English allows it, smoothing the language only where a strict rendering would be unreadable or misleading. That approach makes the ESV a favorite for expository preaching, seminary study and serious personal Bible study, where knowing precisely what the original text says — down to word order and repeated phrases — matters more than immediate ease of reading. It reads more formally than the NIV or NLT but far more naturally than the KJV, without the archaic pronouns. Many Reformed, Presbyterian and evangelical churches adopted the ESV as their primary pulpit translation in the years after its release, largely because a preacher can build an argument on the specific wording of the text with confidence the translation has not smoothed over anything theologically significant. For close reading and cross-referencing rather than casual reading, the ESV is usually the recommendation.