diff --git a/runtime/lua/vim/lsp/util.lua b/runtime/lua/vim/lsp/util.lua
index a08825b735..882ec22ca6 100644
--- a/runtime/lua/vim/lsp/util.lua
+++ b/runtime/lua/vim/lsp/util.lua
@@ -296,6 +296,9 @@ local function get_lines(bufnr, rows)
   end
 
   local filename = api.nvim_buf_get_name(bufnr)
+  if vim.fn.isdirectory(filename) ~= 0 then
+    return {}
+  end
 
   -- get the data from the file
   local fd = uv.fs_open(filename, 'r', 438)