Dr. Hays serves as senior professor of Old Testament at Southwestern Seminary. Dr. Hays previously served for nearly three decades as Dean of the Pruet School of Christian Studies and professor of Biblical Studies at Ouachita Baptist University. Prior to that he and his wife served as missionaries in Ethiopia. 

Dr. Hays is the co-author or co-editor of numerous books including, Living God’s Word: Discovering our Place in God’s Story, 2nd Edition (Zondervan, 2021); Journey into God’s Word: Your Guide to Understanding and Applying the Bible, 2nd Edition (Zondervan, 2020); Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible, 4th Edition (Zondervan, 2020); Baker Illustrated Guide to the Bible (Baker, 2016); The Baker Illustrated Bible Background Commentary (Baker, 2020); and God’s Relational Presence: The Cohesive Center of Biblical Theology (Baker, 2019); which were all co-authored or co-edited with J. Scott Duvall. Dr. Hays is also the author of From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race (InterVarsity, 2003); The Message of the Prophets: A Survey of Old Testament Prophetic and Apocalyptic Books of the Old Testament (Zondervan, 2010); Jeremiah and Lamentations, Teach the Text Commentary Series (Baker, 2016); The Temple and the Tabernacle (Baker, 2016); A Christian Guide’s for Evidence for the Bible (Baker, 2020); The Pentateuch: Life in the Presence of God (B&H, 2024), and The ICHTHUS Christogram and Other Early Christian Symbols (Kregel, 2025). 

Dr. Hays has contributed journal articles for Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Bibliotheca Sacra, Criswell Theological Review, and the Bulletin for Biblical Research. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Institute for Biblical Research, and the Evangelical Theological Society. He regularly gives papers at these academic societies. 

He is married to Donna.