diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 177cfc0..0323d96 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
     <groupId>org.ohnlp.medtagger</groupId>
     <artifactId>medtagger</artifactId>
-    <version>1.0.34</version>
+    <version>1.0.35</version>
     <description>The MedTagger biomedical information extraction pipeline</description>
 
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/ohnlp/medtagger/context/impl/ConTexTSettings.java b/src/main/java/org/ohnlp/medtagger/context/impl/ConTexTSettings.java
index ed64abd..1bd7df3 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/ohnlp/medtagger/context/impl/ConTexTSettings.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/ohnlp/medtagger/context/impl/ConTexTSettings.java
@@ -107,7 +107,13 @@ public ConTexTSettings(/*String*/Object contextFile, int priority) throws FileNo
             String line = sc.nextLine();
             if (line.startsWith("#")) continue;
             if (!(line.startsWith("//"))) {
+                if (line.trim().length() == 0) {
+                    continue;
+                }
                 String[] tmp = line.split("~\\|~");
+                if (tmp.length < 4) {
+                    continue;
+                }
 //                String phrase = tmp[0].replaceAll(" ", "[\\\\s\\\\-]+");
                 String phrase = tmp[0].trim();
                 boolean isRegex = phrase.startsWith("regex:");