Delete all rows in table but keep the last recent 2

[yvonne kire]

I want to keep the last two most recent records in a table and delete anything else - any ideas how this would be acomplished?

I have a ID column and CREATE_DATE column
I can either sort by CREATE_DATE - and keep the last two

All other data that needs to be purged out.
How can accomplish this?

max(ID) or max(CREATE_DATE) find the newest record
how do I find the following record?
select (max(ID) -1 ) doesnot work since the ID are not sequential

| 26821 |
| 27963 |
| 28007 |
| 28131 |
| 28197 |
+-------------------------+