diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java
index a625c235cb600..1ed0f5d6f7994 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Locale;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Objects;
 import java.util.Optional;
@@ -1464,14 +1465,21 @@ private DeleteResult deleteInLucene(Delete delete, DeletionStrategy plan) throws
             }
             return new DeleteResult(
                 plan.versionOfDeletion, getPrimaryTerm(), plan.seqNoOfDeletion, plan.currentlyDeleted == false);
-        } catch (Exception ex) {
-            if (indexWriter.getTragicException() == null) {
-                // there is no tragic event and such it must be a document level failure
-                return new DeleteResult(
-                        ex, plan.versionOfDeletion, delete.primaryTerm(), plan.seqNoOfDeletion, plan.currentlyDeleted == false);
-            } else {
-                throw ex;
+        } catch (final Exception ex) {
+            /*
+             * Document level failures when deleting are unexpected, we likely hit something fatal such as the Lucene index being corrupt,
+             * or the Lucene document limit. We have already issued a sequence number here so this is fatal, fail the engine.
+             */
+            if (ex instanceof AlreadyClosedException == false && indexWriter.getTragicException() == null) {
+                final String reason = String.format(
+                    Locale.ROOT,
+                    "delete id[%s] origin [%s] seq#[%d] failed at the document level",
+                    delete.id(),
+                    delete.origin(),
+                    delete.seqNo());
+                failEngine(reason, ex);
             }
+            throw ex;
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngineTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngineTests.java
index 42175ae21d1b5..b5e34b7218417 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngineTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngineTests.java
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.ShardRouting;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.ShardRoutingState;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.TestShardRouting;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.CheckedBiConsumer;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.CheckedRunnable;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Randomness;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
@@ -3318,8 +3319,8 @@ public void testHandleDocumentFailure() throws Exception {
             AtomicReference<ThrowingIndexWriter> throwingIndexWriter = new AtomicReference<>();
             try (InternalEngine engine = createEngine(defaultSettings, store, createTempDir(), NoMergePolicy.INSTANCE,
                 (directory, iwc) -> {
-                  throwingIndexWriter.set(new ThrowingIndexWriter(directory, iwc));
-                  return throwingIndexWriter.get();
+                    throwingIndexWriter.set(new ThrowingIndexWriter(directory, iwc));
+                    return throwingIndexWriter.get();
                 })
             ) {
                 // test document failure while indexing
@@ -3343,22 +3344,6 @@ public void testHandleDocumentFailure() throws Exception {
                 assertNotNull(indexResult.getTranslogLocation());
                 engine.index(indexForDoc(doc2));
 
-                // test failure while deleting
-                // all these simulated exceptions are not fatal to the IW so we treat them as document failures
-                final Engine.DeleteResult deleteResult;
-                if (randomBoolean()) {
-                    throwingIndexWriter.get().setThrowFailure(() -> new IOException("simulated"));
-                    deleteResult = engine.delete(new Engine.Delete("test", "1", newUid(doc1), primaryTerm.get()));
-                    assertThat(deleteResult.getFailure(), instanceOf(IOException.class));
-                } else {
-                    throwingIndexWriter.get().setThrowFailure(() -> new IllegalArgumentException("simulated max token length"));
-                    deleteResult = engine.delete(new Engine.Delete("test", "1", newUid(doc1), primaryTerm.get()));
-                    assertThat(deleteResult.getFailure(),
-                        instanceOf(IllegalArgumentException.class));
-                }
-                assertThat(deleteResult.getVersion(), equalTo(2L));
-                assertThat(deleteResult.getSeqNo(), equalTo(3L));
-
                 // test non document level failure is thrown
                 if (randomBoolean()) {
                     // simulate close by corruption
@@ -5815,4 +5800,48 @@ public long addDocument(Iterable<? extends IndexableField> doc) throws IOExcepti
         }
     }
 
+    public void testDeleteFailureSoftDeletesEnabledDocAlreadyDeleted() throws IOException {
+        runTestDeleteFailure(true, InternalEngine::delete);
+    }
+
+    public void testDeleteFailureSoftDeletesEnabled() throws IOException {
+        runTestDeleteFailure(true, (engine, op) -> {});
+    }
+
+    public void testDeleteFailureSoftDeletesDisabled() throws IOException {
+        runTestDeleteFailure(false, (engine, op) -> {});
+    }
+
+    private void runTestDeleteFailure(
+        final boolean softDeletesEnabled,
+        final CheckedBiConsumer<InternalEngine, Engine.Delete, IOException> consumer) throws IOException {
+        engine.close();
+        final Settings settings = Settings.builder()
+            .put(defaultSettings.getSettings())
+            .put(IndexSettings.INDEX_SOFT_DELETES_SETTING.getKey(), softDeletesEnabled).build();
+        final IndexSettings indexSettings = IndexSettingsModule.newIndexSettings(
+            IndexMetaData.builder(defaultSettings.getIndexMetaData()).settings(settings).build());
+        final AtomicReference<ThrowingIndexWriter> iw = new AtomicReference<>();
+        try (Store store = createStore();
+             InternalEngine engine = createEngine(
+                 (dir, iwc) -> {
+                     iw.set(new ThrowingIndexWriter(dir, iwc));
+                     return iw.get();
+                 },
+                 null,
+                 null,
+                 config(indexSettings, store, createTempDir(), NoMergePolicy.INSTANCE, null))) {
+            engine.index(new Engine.Index(newUid("0"), primaryTerm.get(), InternalEngineTests.createParsedDoc("0", null)));
+            final Engine.Delete op = new Engine.Delete("_doc", "0", newUid("0"), primaryTerm.get());
+            consumer.accept(engine, op);
+            iw.get().setThrowFailure(() -> new IllegalArgumentException("fatal"));
+            final IllegalArgumentException e = expectThrows(IllegalArgumentException. class, () -> engine.delete(op));
+            assertThat(e.getMessage(), equalTo("fatal"));
+            assertTrue(engine.isClosed.get());
+            assertThat(engine.failedEngine.get(), not(nullValue()));
+            assertThat(engine.failedEngine.get(), instanceOf(IllegalArgumentException.class));
+            assertThat(engine.failedEngine.get().getMessage(), equalTo("fatal"));
+        }
+    }
+
 }