diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index cd913e73fcd..0e9edfdbaa5 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -158,6 +158,7 @@ Release 0.91.0 - Unreleased
                RS entries in master (Weihua via Ted Yu)
    HBASE-4077  Deadlock if WrongRegionException is thrown from getLock in
                HRegion.delete (Adam Warrington via Ted Yu)
+   HBASE-3893  HRegion.internalObtainRowLock shouldn't wait forever
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
    HBASE-3290  Max Compaction Size (Nicolas Spiegelberg via Stack)  
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java
index d401bd2e63d..75725d00dbf 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ import java.util.TreeMap;
 import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap;
 import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentSkipListMap;
 import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;
@@ -59,12 +60,12 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.DroppedSnapshotException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HBaseConfiguration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HColumnDescriptor;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HConstants;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HConstants.OperationStatusCode;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HRegionInfo;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HTableDescriptor;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.KeyValue;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.NotServingRegionException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.UnknownScannerException;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HConstants.OperationStatusCode;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Delete;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Get;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Increment;
@@ -75,10 +76,10 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.RowLock;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Scan;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.coprocessor.Exec;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.coprocessor.ExecResult;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.filter.CompareFilter.CompareOp;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.filter.Filter;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.filter.IncompatibleFilterException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.filter.WritableByteArrayComparable;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.filter.CompareFilter.CompareOp;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.io.HeapSize;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.io.TimeRange;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.io.hfile.BlockCache;
@@ -90,18 +91,17 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.regionserver.compactions.CompactionRequest;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.regionserver.wal.HLog;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.regionserver.wal.HLogKey;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.regionserver.wal.WALEdit;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.HashedBytes;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Bytes;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.CancelableProgressable;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.ClassSize;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.CompressionTest;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.EnvironmentEdgeManager;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.FSUtils;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.HashedBytes;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Pair;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Writables;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.Writable;
 import org.apache.hadoop.util.StringUtils;
-
 import org.cliffc.high_scale_lib.Counter;
 
 import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
@@ -195,6 +195,8 @@ public class HRegion implements HeapSize { // , Writable{
   final HLog log;
   final FileSystem fs;
   final Configuration conf;
+  final int rowLockWaitDuration;
+  static final int DEFAULT_ROWLOCK_WAIT_DURATION = 30000;
   final HRegionInfo regionInfo;
   final Path regiondir;
   KeyValue.KVComparator comparator;
@@ -274,6 +276,7 @@ public class HRegion implements HeapSize { // , Writable{
     this.tableDir = null;
     this.blockingMemStoreSize = 0L;
     this.conf = null;
+    this.rowLockWaitDuration = DEFAULT_ROWLOCK_WAIT_DURATION;
     this.rsServices = null;
     this.fs = null;
     this.memstoreFlushSize = 0L;
@@ -316,6 +319,8 @@ public class HRegion implements HeapSize { // , Writable{
     this.log = log;
     this.fs = fs;
     this.conf = conf;
+    this.rowLockWaitDuration = conf.getInt("hbase.rowlock.wait.duration",
+                    DEFAULT_ROWLOCK_WAIT_DURATION);
     this.regionInfo = regionInfo;
     this.htableDescriptor = htd;
     this.rsServices = rsServices;
@@ -2400,7 +2405,10 @@ public class HRegion implements HeapSize { // , Writable{
             return null;
           }
           try {
-            existingLatch.await();
+            if (!existingLatch.await(this.rowLockWaitDuration,
+                            TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)) {
+                return null;
+            }
           } catch (InterruptedException ie) {
             // Empty
           }