diff --git a/libqpdf/QPDF.cc b/libqpdf/QPDF.cc
index 548a307..adb7d9a 100644
--- a/libqpdf/QPDF.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/QPDF.cc
@@ -641,6 +641,11 @@ QPDF::reconstruct_xref(QPDFExc& e)
 
         throw damagedPDF("", 0, "unable to find trailer dictionary while recovering damaged file");
     }
+    if (m->xref_table.empty()) {
+        // We cannot check for an empty xref table in parse because empty tables are valid when
+        // creating QPDF objects from JSON.
+        throw damagedPDF("", 0, "unable to find objects while recovering damaged file");
+    }
 
     // We could iterate through the objects looking for streams and try to find objects inside of
     // them, but it's probably not worth the trouble.  Acrobat can't recover files with any errors
diff --git a/qpdf/qtest/qpdf/issue-147.out b/qpdf/qtest/qpdf/issue-147.out
index e35bdbc..9e766df 100644
--- a/qpdf/qtest/qpdf/issue-147.out
+++ b/qpdf/qtest/qpdf/issue-147.out
@@ -4,4 +4,4 @@ WARNING: issue-147.pdf: can't find startxref
 WARNING: issue-147.pdf: Attempting to reconstruct cross-reference table
 WARNING: issue-147.pdf (trailer, offset 9): expected dictionary key but found non-name object; inserting key /QPDFFake1
 WARNING: issue-147.pdf: ignoring object with impossibly large id 62
-qpdf: issue-147.pdf: unable to find /Root dictionary
+qpdf: issue-147.pdf: unable to find objects while recovering damaged file