diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveContext.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveContext.scala
index 6ec16f3d2111b..455a2ecf7f0ea 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveContext.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveContext.scala
@@ -65,6 +65,8 @@ private[hive] class HiveQLDialect extends Dialect {
 class HiveContext(sc: SparkContext) extends SQLContext(sc) {
   self =>
 
+  import HiveContext._
+
   /**
    * When true, enables an experimental feature where metastore tables that use the parquet SerDe
    * are automatically converted to use the Spark SQL parquet table scan, instead of the Hive
@@ -103,18 +105,18 @@ class HiveContext(sc: SparkContext) extends SQLContext(sc) {
    * Spark SQL for execution.
    */
   protected[hive] def hiveMetastoreVersion: String =
-    getConf("spark.sql.hive.metastore.version", "0.13.1")
+    getConf(HIVE_METASTORE_VERSION, "0.13.1")
 
   /**
    * The location of the jars that should be used to instantiate the HiveMetastoreClient.  This
    * property can be one of three option:
-   *  - a comma-separated list of jar files that could be passed to a URLClassLoader
+   *  - a colon-separated list of jar files or directories for hive and hadoop.
    *  - builtin - attempt to discover the jars that were used to load Spark SQL and use those. This
    *              option is only valid when using the execution version of Hive.
    *  - maven - download the correct version of hive on demand from maven.
    */
   protected[hive] def hiveMetastoreJars: String =
-    getConf("spark.sql.hive.metastore.jars", "builtin")
+    getConf(HIVE_METASTORE_JARS, "builtin")
 
   @transient
   protected[sql] lazy val substitutor = new VariableSubstitution()
@@ -173,8 +175,8 @@ class HiveContext(sc: SparkContext) extends SQLContext(sc) {
         throw new IllegalArgumentException(
           "Builtin jars can only be used when hive execution version == hive metastore version. " +
           s"Execution: ${hiveExecutionVersion} != Metastore: ${hiveMetastoreVersion}. " +
-          "Specify a vaild path to the correct hive jars using spark.sql.hive.metastore.jars " +
-          s"or change spark.sql.hive.metastore.version to ${hiveExecutionVersion}.")
+          "Specify a vaild path to the correct hive jars using $HIVE_METASTORE_JARS " +
+          s"or change $HIVE_METASTORE_VERSION to $hiveExecutionVersion.")
       }
       val jars = getClass.getClassLoader match {
         case urlClassLoader: java.net.URLClassLoader => urlClassLoader.getURLs
@@ -198,7 +200,17 @@ class HiveContext(sc: SparkContext) extends SQLContext(sc) {
         s"Initializing HiveMetastoreConnection version $hiveMetastoreVersion using maven.")
       IsolatedClientLoader.forVersion(hiveMetastoreVersion, allConfig )
     } else {
-      val jars = hiveMetastoreJars.split(",").map(new java.net.URL(_))
+      // Convert to files and expand any directories.
+      val jars =
+        hiveMetastoreJars
+          .split(":")
+          .map(new java.io.File(_))
+          .flatMap {
+            case f if f.isDirectory => f.listFiles()
+            case f => f :: Nil
+          }
+          .map(_.toURI.toURL)
+
       logInfo(
         s"Initializing HiveMetastoreConnection version $hiveMetastoreVersion using $jars")
       new IsolatedClientLoader(
@@ -460,7 +472,10 @@ class HiveContext(sc: SparkContext) extends SQLContext(sc) {
 }
 
 
-private object HiveContext {
+private[hive] object HiveContext {
+  val HIVE_METASTORE_VERSION: String = "spark.sql.hive.metastore.version"
+  val HIVE_METASTORE_JARS: String = "spark.sql.hive.metastore.jars"
+
   protected val primitiveTypes =
     Seq(StringType, IntegerType, LongType, DoubleType, FloatType, BooleanType, ByteType,
       ShortType, DateType, TimestampType, BinaryType)
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/client/IsolatedClientLoader.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/client/IsolatedClientLoader.scala
index 13986822e895d..7e212e9fafae6 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/client/IsolatedClientLoader.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/client/IsolatedClientLoader.scala
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ import org.apache.spark.Logging
 import org.apache.spark.deploy.SparkSubmitUtils
 
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.util.quietly
+import org.apache.spark.sql.hive.HiveContext
 
 /** Factory for `IsolatedClientLoader` with specific versions of hive. */
 object IsolatedClientLoader {
@@ -166,6 +167,12 @@ class IsolatedClientLoader(
       .getConstructors.head
       .newInstance(version, config)
       .asInstanceOf[ClientInterface]
+  } catch {
+    case ReflectionException(cnf: NoClassDefFoundError) =>
+      throw new ClassNotFoundException(
+        s"$cnf when creating Hive client using classpath: ${execJars.mkString(", ")}\n" +
+         "Please make sure that jars for your version of hive and hadoop are included in the " +
+        s"paths passed to ${HiveContext.HIVE_METASTORE_JARS}.")
   } finally {
     Thread.currentThread.setContextClassLoader(baseClassLoader)
   }
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/client/ReflectionMagic.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/client/ReflectionMagic.scala
index 90d03049356b5..c600b158c5460 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/client/ReflectionMagic.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/client/ReflectionMagic.scala
@@ -19,6 +19,14 @@ package org.apache.spark.sql.hive.client
 
 import scala.reflect._
 
+/** Unwraps reflection exceptions. */
+private[client] object ReflectionException {
+  def unapply(a: Throwable): Option[Throwable] = a match {
+    case ite: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException => Option(ite.getCause)
+    case _ => None
+  }
+}
+
 /**
  * Provides implicit functions on any object for calling methods reflectively.
  */