diff --git a/hive-metastore/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/hive/HiveTableOperations.java b/hive-metastore/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/hive/HiveTableOperations.java
index f03fa0b1014e..8db805596a8e 100644
--- a/hive-metastore/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/hive/HiveTableOperations.java
+++ b/hive-metastore/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/hive/HiveTableOperations.java
@@ -319,8 +319,8 @@ private long acquireLock() throws UnknownHostException, TException, InterruptedE
     long duration = 0;
     boolean timeout = false;
 
-    if (state.get().equals(LockState.WAITING)) {
-      try {
+    try {
+      if (state.get().equals(LockState.WAITING)) {
         // Retry count is the typical "upper bound of retries" for Tasks.run() function. In fact, the maximum number of
         // attempts the Tasks.run() would try is `retries + 1`. Here, for checking locks, we use timeout as the
         // upper bound of retries. So it is just reasonable to set a large retry count. However, if we set
@@ -348,9 +348,13 @@ private long acquireLock() throws UnknownHostException, TException, InterruptedE
                 LOG.warn("Interrupted while waiting for lock.", e);
               }
             }, TException.class);
-      } catch (WaitingForLockException waitingForLockException) {
-        timeout = true;
-        duration = System.currentTimeMillis() - start;
+      }
+    } catch (WaitingForLockException waitingForLockException) {
+      timeout = true;
+      duration = System.currentTimeMillis() - start;
+    } finally {
+      if (!state.get().equals(LockState.ACQUIRED)) {
+        unlock(Optional.of(lockId));
       }
     }