diff --git a/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/xpath/SaxonXPathRuleQuery.java b/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/xpath/SaxonXPathRuleQuery.java
index 4bcb8f7423..b1456b5754 100644
--- a/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/xpath/SaxonXPathRuleQuery.java
+++ b/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/xpath/SaxonXPathRuleQuery.java
@@ -120,25 +120,21 @@ public class SaxonXPathRuleQuery extends AbstractXPathRuleQuery {
             assert rootElementNode != null : "Cannot find " + node;
             final XPathDynamicContext xpathDynamicContext = createDynamicContext(rootElementNode);
 
-            final List<ElementNode> nodes = new LinkedList<>();
+            final List<Node> results = new LinkedList<>();
             List<Expression> expressions = getXPathExpressionForNodeOrDefault(node.getXPathNodeName());
             for (Expression expression : expressions) {
                 SequenceIterator iterator = expression.iterate(xpathDynamicContext.getXPathContextObject());
                 Item current = iterator.next();
                 while (current != null) {
-                    nodes.add((ElementNode) current);
+                    if (current instanceof ElementNode) {
+                        results.add((Node) ((ElementNode) current).getUnderlyingNode());
+                    } else {
+                        throw new RuntimeException("XPath rule expression returned a non-node (" + current.getClass() + "): " + current);
+                    }
                     current = iterator.next();
                 }
             }
 
-            /*
-             Map List of Saxon Nodes -> List of AST Nodes, which were detected to match the XPath expression
-             (i.e. violation found)
-              */
-            final List<Node> results = new ArrayList<>(nodes.size());
-            for (final ElementNode elementNode : nodes) {
-                results.add((Node) elementNode.getUnderlyingNode());
-            }
             Collections.sort(results, RuleChainAnalyzer.documentOrderComparator());
             return results;
         } catch (final XPathException e) {
diff --git a/pmd-core/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/xpath/SaxonXPathRuleQueryTest.java b/pmd-core/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/xpath/SaxonXPathRuleQueryTest.java
index 0920d7c4e4..457ccdd6a0 100644
--- a/pmd-core/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/xpath/SaxonXPathRuleQueryTest.java
+++ b/pmd-core/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/xpath/SaxonXPathRuleQueryTest.java
@@ -9,8 +9,11 @@ import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 
+import org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers;
 import org.junit.Assert;
+import org.junit.Rule;
 import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.rules.ExpectedException;
 
 import net.sourceforge.pmd.RuleContext;
 import net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.ast.DummyNodeWithListAndEnum;
@@ -22,6 +25,9 @@ import net.sf.saxon.expr.Expression;
 
 public class SaxonXPathRuleQueryTest {
 
+    @Rule
+    public final ExpectedException expected = ExpectedException.none();
+
     @Test
     public void testListAttribute() {
         DummyNodeWithListAndEnum dummy = new DummyNodeWithListAndEnum(1);
@@ -37,6 +43,18 @@ public class SaxonXPathRuleQueryTest {
         assertQuery(0, "//dummyNode[@EmptyList = (\"A\")]", dummy);
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testInvalidReturn() {
+        DummyNodeWithListAndEnum dummy = new DummyNodeWithListAndEnum(1);
+
+
+        expected.expect(RuntimeException.class);
+        expected.expectMessage(CoreMatchers.containsString("XPath rule expression returned a non-node"));
+        expected.expectMessage(CoreMatchers.containsString("Int64Value"));
+
+        createQuery("1+2").evaluate(dummy, new RuleContext());
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void ruleChainVisits() {
         SaxonXPathRuleQuery query = createQuery("//dummyNode[@Image='baz']/foo | //bar[@Public = 'true'] | //dummyNode[@Public = false()] | //dummyNode");