diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/AnalysisException.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/AnalysisException.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..871d560b9d54f2208b47b9596d2470e0a71aa44f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/AnalysisException.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.sql
+
+/**
+ * Thrown when a query fails to analyze, usually because the query itself is invalid.
+ */
+class AnalysisException(message: String) extends Exception(message) with Serializable
diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/Analyzer.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/Analyzer.scala
index fb2ff014cef075a01a0dbfddaf8d39667b3ead01..3f0d77ad6322aae2e895980827d08c40e11bb577 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/Analyzer.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/Analyzer.scala
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 package org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.analysis
 
 import org.apache.spark.util.collection.OpenHashSet
+import org.apache.spark.sql.AnalysisException
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.errors.TreeNodeException
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions._
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.plans.logical._
@@ -80,16 +81,18 @@ class Analyzer(catalog: Catalog,
    */
   object CheckResolution extends Rule[LogicalPlan] {
     def apply(plan: LogicalPlan): LogicalPlan = {
-      plan.transform {
+      plan.transformUp {
         case p if p.expressions.exists(!_.resolved) =>
-          throw new TreeNodeException(p,
-            s"Unresolved attributes: ${p.expressions.filterNot(_.resolved).mkString(",")}")
+          val missing = p.expressions.filterNot(_.resolved).map(_.prettyString).mkString(",")
+          val from = p.inputSet.map(_.name).mkString("{", ", ", "}")
+
+          throw new AnalysisException(s"Cannot resolve '$missing' given input columns $from")
         case p if !p.resolved && p.childrenResolved =>
-          throw new TreeNodeException(p, "Unresolved plan found")
+          throw new AnalysisException(s"Unresolved operator in the query plan ${p.simpleString}")
       } match {
         // As a backstop, use the root node to check that the entire plan tree is resolved.
         case p if !p.resolved =>
-          throw new TreeNodeException(p, "Unresolved plan in tree")
+          throw new AnalysisException(s"Unresolved operator in the query plan ${p.simpleString}")
         case p => p
       }
     }
@@ -314,10 +317,11 @@ class Analyzer(catalog: Catalog,
         val checkField = (f: StructField) => resolver(f.name, fieldName)
         val ordinal = fields.indexWhere(checkField)
         if (ordinal == -1) {
-          sys.error(
+          throw new AnalysisException(
             s"No such struct field $fieldName in ${fields.map(_.name).mkString(", ")}")
         } else if (fields.indexWhere(checkField, ordinal + 1) != -1) {
-          sys.error(s"Ambiguous reference to fields ${fields.filter(checkField).mkString(", ")}")
+          throw new AnalysisException(
+            s"Ambiguous reference to fields ${fields.filter(checkField).mkString(", ")}")
         } else {
           ordinal
         }
@@ -329,7 +333,8 @@ class Analyzer(catalog: Catalog,
         case ArrayType(StructType(fields), containsNull) =>
           val ordinal = findField(fields)
           ArrayGetField(expr, fields(ordinal), ordinal, containsNull)
-        case otherType => sys.error(s"GetField is not valid on fields of type $otherType")
+        case otherType =>
+          throw new AnalysisException(s"GetField is not valid on fields of type $otherType")
       }
     }
   }
diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/AnalysisSuite.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/AnalysisSuite.scala
index 60060bf02913b92ac19cc760b2ba107a8562b5fa..f011a5ff15ea9a506bf4926e1b175db00dd93e5a 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/AnalysisSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/AnalysisSuite.scala
@@ -19,8 +19,8 @@ package org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.analysis
 
 import org.scalatest.{BeforeAndAfter, FunSuite}
 
+import org.apache.spark.sql.AnalysisException
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions.{Alias, AttributeReference}
-import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.errors.TreeNodeException
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.plans.logical._
 import org.apache.spark.sql.types._
 
@@ -69,12 +69,12 @@ class AnalysisSuite extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfter {
           UnresolvedRelation(Seq("TaBlE"), Some("TbL")))) ===
         Project(testRelation.output, testRelation))
 
-    val e = intercept[TreeNodeException[_]] {
+    val e = intercept[AnalysisException] {
       caseSensitiveAnalyze(
         Project(Seq(UnresolvedAttribute("tBl.a")),
           UnresolvedRelation(Seq("TaBlE"), Some("TbL"))))
     }
-    assert(e.getMessage().toLowerCase.contains("unresolved"))
+    assert(e.getMessage().toLowerCase.contains("cannot resolve"))
 
     assert(
       caseInsensitiveAnalyze(
@@ -109,10 +109,10 @@ class AnalysisSuite extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfter {
   }
 
   test("throw errors for unresolved attributes during analysis") {
-    val e = intercept[TreeNodeException[_]] {
+    val e = intercept[AnalysisException] {
       caseSensitiveAnalyze(Project(Seq(UnresolvedAttribute("abcd")), testRelation))
     }
-    assert(e.getMessage().toLowerCase.contains("unresolved attribute"))
+    assert(e.getMessage().toLowerCase.contains("cannot resolve"))
   }
 
   test("throw errors for unresolved plans during analysis") {
@@ -120,10 +120,10 @@ class AnalysisSuite extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfter {
       override lazy val resolved = false
       override def output = Nil
     }
-    val e = intercept[TreeNodeException[_]] {
+    val e = intercept[AnalysisException] {
       caseSensitiveAnalyze(UnresolvedTestPlan())
     }
-    assert(e.getMessage().toLowerCase.contains("unresolved plan"))
+    assert(e.getMessage().toLowerCase.contains("unresolved"))
   }
 
   test("divide should be casted into fractional types") {
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SQLQuerySuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SQLQuerySuite.scala
index 11502edf972e996ec160d0091a27b5200feee49e..55fd0b0892fa16eaaa642ec8b3281925e7bff396 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SQLQuerySuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SQLQuerySuite.scala
@@ -589,7 +589,7 @@ class SQLQuerySuite extends QueryTest with BeforeAndAfterAll {
       ("1" :: "2" :: "3" :: "4" :: "A" :: "B" :: "C" :: "D" :: "E" :: "F" :: Nil).map(Row(_)))
     // Column type mismatches where a coercion is not possible, in this case between integer
     // and array types, trigger a TreeNodeException.
-    intercept[TreeNodeException[_]] {
+    intercept[AnalysisException] {
       sql("SELECT data FROM arrayData UNION SELECT 1 FROM arrayData").collect()
     }
   }
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveResolutionSuite.scala b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveResolutionSuite.scala
index ff8130ae5f6bc86ac635b0e4b673e2716264d9ac..ab5f9cdddf5087433a7d3e4c12f4795105ed3657 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveResolutionSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveResolutionSuite.scala
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 package org.apache.spark.sql.hive.execution
 
+import org.apache.spark.sql.AnalysisException
 import org.apache.spark.sql.hive.test.TestHive.{sparkContext, jsonRDD, sql}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.hive.test.TestHive.implicits._
 
@@ -40,7 +41,7 @@ class HiveResolutionSuite extends HiveComparisonTest {
       """{"a": [{"b": 1, "B": 2}]}""" :: Nil)).registerTempTable("nested")
 
     // there are 2 filed matching field name "b", we should report Ambiguous reference error
-    val exception = intercept[RuntimeException] {
+    val exception = intercept[AnalysisException] {
       sql("SELECT a[0].b from nested").queryExecution.analyzed
     }
     assert(exception.getMessage.contains("Ambiguous reference to fields"))