My favorite translation of the Bible is William Tyndale's translation.
The prose looks tough at first, but it is beautiful considering he was burned alive for making the Bible available in English (he wasn't authorized to do so):
"And there spronge a rever out of Eden to water the garden and thence devided it selfe and grewe in to foure principall waters." (Genesis 2:10).
There is also the Coverdale translation which is hard to find, but also
the Geneva Bible. The early Wycliffe version is the earliest translation of the Latin Vulgate dating back to the 1380s.
All of which I speak of came out before the KJV was authorized.
Read Tyndale Bible
Read Coverdale Bible
Read Geneva Bible
Read Wycliffe Bible
Remember to meditate upon influence. When you read these texts:
study the changes in meaning and influence between characters
and settings.
Look at what anxieties and sublimations the individual characters
might have undergone since they met this or that other character; or, since
the change in scenery.
Read deeply.