Would you prefer your bible translation to be word-for-word or thought-for-thought?
Word-for-word translations attempt to translate the Bible as literally as possible, keeping the sentence structure and idioms intact if possible.
Thought-for-thought translation is an attempt to translate the text so it has the same effect on the current reader as it had on the ancient reader.
(Click image for bigger version)
Take a look at the above image and see where some translations fall on this scale. I found this quite interesting!
Originally taken from http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2011/11/10/translation-philosophy-three-views/