I enjoyed your work How to Read the Bible and was hoping you might recommend an English translation of the Bible for scholarly use.
Overall, I think the best translation of the Hebrew Bible is the New Jewish Publication Society translation — it’s accurate, readable, and all that you want in a translation. Along with it, however, is the New Revised Standard Version, which is available in a footnoted edition (“The Oxford Study Bible”) — it tends to be a little bit closer to the Hebrew words (though sometimes at the cost of readability), plus: the notes are very good; this edition also includes the biblical apocrypha and the New Testament, which is not the case with the JPS translation. Actually, since both are rather inexpensive in paperback, I’d recommend getting both. They’re also found on some websites on the internet.