diff --git a/src/GitList/Exception/BlankDataException.php b/src/GitList/Exception/BlankDataException.php
index f11fb4e..1293fbb 100644
--- a/src/GitList/Exception/BlankDataException.php
+++ b/src/GitList/Exception/BlankDataException.php
@@ -2,4 +2,7 @@
 
 namespace GitList\Exception;
 
-class BlankDataException extends \RuntimeException {}
+class BlankDataException extends \RuntimeException
+{
+    
+}
diff --git a/src/GitList/Exception/EmptyRepositoryException.php b/src/GitList/Exception/EmptyRepositoryException.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..027a4d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/GitList/Exception/EmptyRepositoryException.php
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace GitList\Exception;
+
+class EmptyRepositoryException extends \RuntimeException
+{
+    
+}
diff --git a/src/GitList/Util/Routing.php b/src/GitList/Util/Routing.php
index cb067b5..7e67c29 100644
--- a/src/GitList/Util/Routing.php
+++ b/src/GitList/Util/Routing.php
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 namespace GitList\Util;
 
 use Silex\Application;
+use GitList\Exception\EmptyRepositoryException;
 
 class Routing
 {
@@ -40,8 +41,6 @@ class Routing
         }
 
         if ($commitish === null) {
-            // DEBUG Can you have a repo with no branches? How should we handle
-            // that?
             $branches = $repository->getBranches();
 
             $tags = $repository->getTags();
@@ -59,11 +58,11 @@ class Routing
                 }
             }
 
-            $commitish = $matchedBranch;
-        }
+            if ($matchedBranch === null) {
+                throw new EmptyRepositoryException('This repository is currently empty. There are no commits.');
+            }
 
-        if ($commitish === null) {
-            $app->abort(404, "'$branch_path' does not appear to contain a commit-ish for '$repo'.");
+            $commitish = $matchedBranch;
         }
 
         $commitishLength = strlen($commitish);