The question to ask is what does it mean that the Bible is "God's inspired word".  It seems straightforward at first, but think about it.  The Bible isn't a book per se, it's a collection of historical manuscripts, letters, etc.  It's a collection of books.  The different books were written by different people.  The books were written in Hebrew, and Greek (and Chaldean).  Yet the version we read is written in English.

So what was inspired by God?  The thought of the original author.  Was the translator who converted it to English inspired by God also.  Was the person who read this translation and wrote your Sunday school book inspired by God also?

My opinion is that God inspired the original thoughts of the authors. 

It is therefore important for you to be able to have some method of determining for yourself which translation or interpretation is correct rather than just assuming because it's the one "you grew up with", or the one that "puts it in plain english", or the one your church uses, that makes it a better translation than the others.

There are copies of the original manuscripts available in Hebrew and Greek, but most of us are not fluent in these languages.

This is the reason for my first study aid:  the Strong's Bible Concordance.

This concordance allows you to take a verse or a word from the Bible and translate it back to the original Greek or Hebrew word. 

This is helpful in helping you determine which words were added.  Also, the original Greek manuscripts didn't have any punctuation (until the 9th century), but the meaning of some verses depend heavily on where you decide to place a comma.  The seperations of verses and chapters was not done by the original authors either.

There are many situations where it is important to know what the original words were.  For instance, many of the names in the English version of the bible were transliterated instead of translated.  Meaning they took the original letters, and replaced them with the English letters even though the word didn't really mean anything anymore.  For instance, Peter means "rock".  Christ named him that because he was to be the foundation of the church.  It is helpful to know what people's names mean (especially when God changes their name).

It also show you every occurrence of a word.  So you can see, for instance, how the same Hebrew/Greek work was translated to mean different things in different places.

You will notice in a few places in my study I include the Strong's definition of the word.

Another issue is that people use idioms or figures of speech.  For instance, if someone wrote that it was raining cats and dogs, it could lead to a great deal of confusion if these words were directly translated.  Someone might think that there were cats and dogs falling from Heaven when the author simply meant that it was raining heavily.

I recently received an e-mail from someone asking me to explain what sound a turtle makes after reading Solomon 2:12 which in the King James Version reads:

 Song 2:12
12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
KJV

  OT:8449
towr (tore); or tor (tore); probably the same as OT:8447; a ring-dove, often (figuratively) as a term of endearment:
KJV - (turtle) dove.

This clears up the confusion for this verse, and also helps illustrate my next point.  You can see from the Strong's definition that the Hebrew word turtledove is often used as a term of endearment.  If someone refered to someone else as a dove it may cause confusion if you didn't know that that was a slang term of endearment. 

To help understand idioms and figures of speech used in the Bible I also use: The Companion Bible

The margin of the Companion Bible gives: explanations of figures of speech, the meanings of Proper Names of persons and places, the spiritual significance of numbers, explanations of references to money, coins , weights, and measures, and much more.  The 198 appendixes of the bible discuss synonyms for various words, and uses of it, genealogies, various confusing and controversial bible passages and topics, the various names for God, the ordering of the books of the bible, and many more deeper topics.
 
 

My primary aid is a computer program called: PC Bible Study (by BibleSoft)

This program contains multiple bible versions, bible commentaries which discuss the separate verses of the bible, in depth studies of particular books of the bible (including Revelations), various concordances (including Strong's) which give definitions and explanations of the words in every verse, maps, collections of speeches, and studies on various topics.  It also gives you the ability to search for every occurrence of  a particular English, Greek, or Hebrew word.

This allows me to view the verses in different versions of the bible, and also investigate the original words for verses that are unclear (which allows me to determine for myself which translation is correct).  It  allows me to see how the same word was translated in other verses.

It also contains studies on various topics.