Review of Hear the Word ESV Audio Bible

  

I am big believer in the absolute necessity of immersing oneself into the Scriptures. When I teach Bible courses, I always require the reading of the actual biblical texts covered in the course. I have also made it a practice to listen to the text as I do work around the house or as I drive. I first started doing this with cassettes (I know that this dates me). I also started with the KJV and then moved on to the NIV. But after a number of years I wanted to listen to another translation. So it was with great excitement that I was given the opportunity by Crossway to test drive the Hear the Word ESV Audio Bible.

This set comes in different versions. My version consists of 59 audio CD's containing 75 hours of audio. The reading is done by David Heath. It is a straightforward reading (not dramatized as in some recordings) with no background music or sounds. Each chapter forms a separate MP3 track. The 59 CD's come in a nice vinyl binder. The set also comes with free ESV Bible resources software. My only criticism is that the individual tracks are not identified by book and chapter. Rather they are simply designated track01, track02, etc. I would have preferred something like Genesis01or Gen02. This makes it a little less user friendly, especially if you are going to load the MP3's to an iPod or MP3 player. Renaming each track would be a bit of a hassle. That being said, I think that Hear the Word ESV Audio Bible would still make a good option for those looking for a  audio version.