Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 4:20

"And he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man doth come and inquire of thee, and say, Is there any man here? that thou shalt say, No." — Judges 4:20 (ASV)

Stand.—The imperative here used has the masculine, not the feminine termination, but probably only because it is used generally.

That you shall say, No.—In that age, and among those nations, and under such circumstances, a lie would have been regarded as perfectly natural and justifiable; even under the Christian dispensation, many casuists declare a lie for self-preservation to be venial, though it is hoped that there are millions who, without condemning such a falsehood in others, would suffer any extremity rather than be guilty of it themselves. Under any circumstances, it would be very unfair to judge by the standard of Christianity the words and actions of ignorant nomads and idolatrous Canaanites, more than a thousand years before Christ. Sisera and Jael would have acted, without the faintest sense of conscientious scruple, on the heathen advice of Darius—“When it is necessary to lie, lie” (Herod. iii. 72).