diff --git a/Lib/posixpath.py b/Lib/posixpath.py
index eb17dbab071..f08c9310d4e 100644
--- a/Lib/posixpath.py
+++ b/Lib/posixpath.py
@@ -82,14 +82,13 @@ def join(a, *p):
                 path += b
             else:
                 path += sep + b
-    except TypeError:
-        valid_types = all(isinstance(s, (str, bytes, bytearray))
-                          for s in (a, ) + p)
-        if valid_types:
-            # Must have a mixture of text and binary data
-            raise TypeError("Can't mix strings and bytes in path "
-                            "components.") from None
-        raise
+    except (TypeError, AttributeError):
+        for s in (a,) + p:
+            if not isinstance(s, (str, bytes)):
+                raise TypeError('join() argument must be str or bytes, not %r' %
+                                s.__class__.__name__) from None
+        # Must have a mixture of text and binary data
+        raise TypeError("Can't mix strings and bytes in path components") from None
     return path
 
 
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_posixpath.py b/Lib/test/test_posixpath.py
index 412849cff3a..d5a12a31dd7 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_posixpath.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_posixpath.py
@@ -57,21 +57,21 @@ class PosixPathTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(posixpath.join(b"/foo/", b"bar/", b"baz/"),
                          b"/foo/bar/baz/")
 
-        def check_error_msg(list_of_args, msg):
-            """Check posixpath.join raises friendly TypeErrors."""
-            for args in (item for perm in list_of_args
-                              for item in itertools.permutations(perm)):
-                with self.assertRaises(TypeError) as cm:
-                    posixpath.join(*args)
-                self.assertEqual(msg, cm.exception.args[0])
-
-        check_error_msg([[b'bytes', 'str'], [bytearray(b'bytes'), 'str']],
-                        "Can't mix strings and bytes in path components.")
+    def test_join_errors(self):
+        # Check posixpath.join raises friendly TypeErrors.
+        errmsg = "Can't mix strings and bytes in path components"
+        with self.assertRaisesRegex(TypeError, errmsg):
+            posixpath.join(b'bytes', 'str')
+        with self.assertRaisesRegex(TypeError, errmsg):
+            posixpath.join('str', b'bytes')
         # regression, see #15377
-        with self.assertRaises(TypeError) as cm:
+        errmsg = r'join\(\) argument must be str or bytes, not %r'
+        with self.assertRaisesRegex(TypeError, errmsg % 'NoneType'):
             posixpath.join(None, 'str')
-        self.assertNotEqual("Can't mix strings and bytes in path components.",
-                            cm.exception.args[0])
+        with self.assertRaisesRegex(TypeError, errmsg % 'NoneType'):
+            posixpath.join('str', None)
+        with self.assertRaisesRegex(TypeError, errmsg % 'bytearray'):
+            posixpath.join(bytearray(b'foo'), bytearray(b'bar'))
 
     def test_split(self):
         self.assertEqual(posixpath.split("/foo/bar"), ("/foo", "bar"))