diff --git a/docs/configs/janusgraph-cfg.md b/docs/configs/janusgraph-cfg.md
index 352dbfc265b..ff089082670 100644
--- a/docs/configs/janusgraph-cfg.md
+++ b/docs/configs/janusgraph-cfg.md
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ Elasticsearch index configuration
 | index.[X].elasticsearch.enable_index_names_cache | Enables cache for generated index store names. It is recommended to always enable index store names cache unless you have more then 50000 indexes per index store. | Boolean | true | MASKABLE |
 | index.[X].elasticsearch.health-request-timeout | When JanusGraph initializes its ES backend, JanusGraph waits up to this duration for the ES cluster health to reach at least yellow status.  This string should be formatted as a natural number followed by the lowercase letter "s", e.g. 3s or 60s. | String | 30s | MASKABLE |
 | index.[X].elasticsearch.interface | Interface for connecting to Elasticsearch. TRANSPORT_CLIENT and NODE were previously supported, but now are required to migrate to REST_CLIENT. See the JanusGraph upgrade instructions for more details. | String | REST_CLIENT | MASKABLE |
-| index.[X].elasticsearch.retry-error-codes | Elasticsearch REST client ResponseException error codes To Retry. | String[] |  | LOCAL |
+| index.[X].elasticsearch.retry-error-codes | Comma separated list of Elasticsearch REST client ResponseException error codes to retry. E.g. "408,429" | String[] |  | LOCAL |
 | index.[X].elasticsearch.retry-initial-wait | Sets the initial retry wait time (in milliseconds) before exponential backoff. | Long | 1 | LOCAL |
 | index.[X].elasticsearch.retry-limit | Sets the number of attempts for configured retryable error codes. | Integer | 0 | LOCAL |
 | index.[X].elasticsearch.retry-max-wait | Sets the max retry wait time (in milliseconds). | Long | 1000 | LOCAL |
diff --git a/janusgraph-es/src/main/java/org/janusgraph/diskstorage/es/ElasticSearchIndex.java b/janusgraph-es/src/main/java/org/janusgraph/diskstorage/es/ElasticSearchIndex.java
index 19f7bedfa42..74799797611 100644
--- a/janusgraph-es/src/main/java/org/janusgraph/diskstorage/es/ElasticSearchIndex.java
+++ b/janusgraph-es/src/main/java/org/janusgraph/diskstorage/es/ElasticSearchIndex.java
@@ -321,8 +321,8 @@ public class ElasticSearchIndex implements IndexProvider {
 
     public static final ConfigOption<String[]> RETRY_ERROR_CODES =
         new ConfigOption<>(ELASTICSEARCH_NS, "retry-error-codes",
-            "Elasticsearch REST client ResponseException error codes To Retry.", ConfigOption.Type.LOCAL,
-            String[].class, new String[0]);
+            "Comma separated list of Elasticsearch REST client ResponseException error codes to retry. " +
+                "E.g. \"408,429\"", ConfigOption.Type.LOCAL, String[].class, new String[0]);
 
     public static final int HOST_PORT_DEFAULT = 9200;