You should specify a prefix for your namespace and use this prefix in your XPath expression.
The following should work: Document document = reader.read(new File("findings.html")); XPath xp = DocumentFactory.getInstance().createXPath( "//xhtml:[EMAIL PROTECTED]'content_left']"); Map ns = new HashMap(); ns.put( "xhtml","http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"); xp.setNamespaceURIs( ns); List nodes = xp.selectNodes( document.getRootElement()); Good luck, Edwin -- http://www.edankert.com/