IS LYING FORBIDDEN?

Exodus 20:16  Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. (KJV) Proverbs 12:22  Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight. (KJV) Exodus 1:18-20 And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive?  And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. (KJV) Joshua 2:3-4  And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house: for they be come to search out all the country.  And the woman took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were: (KJV) I Kings 22:21-22  And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. (KJV) James 2:25  Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?(KJV)

In none of these passages did God command anyone to lie.  It certainly is true that Rahab was justified (to people, but not to God) by what she did, but that was for protecting the men, not for having lied.  Are the critics really claiming that what Rahab did was a bad thing?  If so, do they also think that those who hid Jewish people from the nazis, or those who worked on the underground railroad in slave days, were doing a bad thing?  Not a contradiction.