diff --git a/lib/tokenize.cpp b/lib/tokenize.cpp
index 946063404..ba4125bed 100644
--- a/lib/tokenize.cpp
+++ b/lib/tokenize.cpp
@@ -3629,16 +3629,14 @@ void Tokenizer::simplifyEmptyNamespaces()
             continue;
         if (tok->strAt(3) == "}") {
             tok->deleteNext(3);             // remove '%var% { }'
-            if (tok->next()) {              // '%empty% namespace %anytoken%'?
-                if (!tok->previous()) {
-                    tok->deleteThis();      // remove 'namespace'
-                    goback = true;
-                } else {                    // '%any% namespace %any%'
-                    tok = tok->previous();  // goto previous token
-                    tok->deleteNext();      // remove next token: 'namespace'
-                }
-            } else                          // '%empty% namespace %empty%'?
-                tok->str(";");              // change 'namespace' to ';'
+            if (!tok->previous()) {
+                // remove 'namespace' or replace it with ';' if isolated
+                tok->deleteThis();
+                goback = true;
+            } else {                    // '%any% namespace %any%'
+                tok = tok->previous();  // goto previous token
+                tok->deleteNext();      // remove next token: 'namespace'
+            }
         } else {
             tok = tok->tokAt(2);
         }