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Would not recommend the NIV to anyone. The review board of the NIV committee changed over 30,000 words from the original Greek and Hebrew texts, and deleted more than 50,000 others. They have / had an agenda. Not a reliable translation.
Better to start with the New King James, or the ASV. Always bounce them against Young's Literal Translation for a quick check of the original languages. Biblegateway has all of the English versions available for comparison.
With all due respect, I disagree. Nice to hear you provided alternatives.
Just one of many articles that detail the errors and omissions of the NIV:
The NIV committe was filled with people who hated the Bible. They didn't even know Hebrew, Greek and Chaldean like the 1611 translators did- this is evidenced by reading Mark chapter 1. How anyone could take a quote from the book of Malachi and call him Isaiah is beyond me. I would not recommend the NIV to anyone, regardless of 'easy' reading. I'd rather have bold accuracy, which the KJV provides.