diff --git a/docs/cli.rst b/docs/cli.rst
index af48a3e..55be13c 100644
--- a/docs/cli.rst
+++ b/docs/cli.rst
@@ -274,6 +274,10 @@ You can skip inserting any records that have a primary key that already exists u
 
     $ sqlite-utils insert dogs.db dogs dogs.json --ignore
 
+You can delete all the existing rows in the table before inserting the new records using ``--truncate``::
+
+    $ sqlite-utils insert dogs.db dogs dogs.json --truncate
+
 You can also import newline-delimited JSON using the ``--nl`` option. Since `Datasette <https://datasette.readthedocs.io/>`__ can export newline-delimited JSON, you can combine the two tools like so::
 
     $ curl -L "https://latest.datasette.io/fixtures/facetable.json?_shape=array&_nl=on" \
diff --git a/docs/python-api.rst b/docs/python-api.rst
index c2c75c7..e6b1af6 100644
--- a/docs/python-api.rst
+++ b/docs/python-api.rst
@@ -423,6 +423,9 @@ The function can accept an iterator or generator of rows and will commit them ac
 
 You can skip inserting any records that have a primary key that already exists using ``ignore=True``. This works with both ``.insert({...}, ignore=True)`` and ``.insert_all([...], ignore=True)``.
 
+You can delete all the existing rows in the table before inserting the new
+records using ``truncate=True``. This is useful if you want to replace the data in the table.
+
 .. _python_api_insert_replace:
 
 Insert-replacing data
diff --git a/sqlite_utils/cli.py b/sqlite_utils/cli.py
index ab77366..7c87945 100644
--- a/sqlite_utils/cli.py
+++ b/sqlite_utils/cli.py
@@ -423,6 +423,7 @@ def insert_upsert_implementation(
     upsert,
     ignore=False,
     replace=False,
+    truncate=False,
     not_null=None,
     default=None,
 ):
@@ -442,7 +443,7 @@ def insert_upsert_implementation(
         docs = json.load(json_file)
         if isinstance(docs, dict):
             docs = [docs]
-    extra_kwargs = {"ignore": ignore, "replace": replace}
+    extra_kwargs = {"ignore": ignore, "replace": replace, "truncate": truncate}
     if not_null:
         extra_kwargs["not_null"] = set(not_null)
     if default:
@@ -465,6 +466,12 @@ def insert_upsert_implementation(
     default=False,
     help="Replace records if pk already exists",
 )
+@click.option(
+    "--truncate",
+    is_flag=True,
+    default=False,
+    help="Truncate table before inserting records, if table already exists",
+)
 def insert(
     path,
     table,
@@ -477,6 +484,7 @@ def insert(
     alter,
     ignore,
     replace,
+    truncate,
     not_null,
     default,
 ):
@@ -499,6 +507,7 @@ def insert(
         upsert=False,
         ignore=ignore,
         replace=replace,
+        truncate=truncate,
         not_null=not_null,
         default=default,
     )
diff --git a/sqlite_utils/db.py b/sqlite_utils/db.py
index edac5d9..d6b9ecf 100644
--- a/sqlite_utils/db.py
+++ b/sqlite_utils/db.py
@@ -976,6 +976,7 @@ class Table(Queryable):
         alter=DEFAULT,
         ignore=DEFAULT,
         replace=DEFAULT,
+        truncate=False,
         extracts=DEFAULT,
         conversions=DEFAULT,
         columns=DEFAULT,
@@ -1027,6 +1028,8 @@ class Table(Queryable):
         batch_size = max(1, min(batch_size, SQLITE_MAX_VARS // num_columns))
         self.last_rowid = None
         self.last_pk = None
+        if truncate and self.exists():
+            self.db.conn.execute("DELETE FROM [{}];".format(self.name))
         for chunk in chunks(itertools.chain([first_record], records), batch_size):
             chunk = list(chunk)
             num_records_processed += len(chunk)
diff --git a/tests/test_cli.py b/tests/test_cli.py
index c9f4658..e9a317d 100644
--- a/tests/test_cli.py
+++ b/tests/test_cli.py
@@ -642,6 +642,39 @@ def test_insert_replace(db_path, tmpdir):
     )
 
 
+def test_insert_truncate(db_path):
+    result = CliRunner().invoke(
+        cli.cli,
+        ["insert", db_path, "from_json_nl", "-", "--nl", "--batch-size=1"],
+        input='{"foo": "bar", "n": 1}\n{"foo": "baz", "n": 2}',
+    )
+    assert 0 == result.exit_code, result.output
+    db = Database(db_path)
+    assert [
+        {"foo": "bar", "n": 1},
+        {"foo": "baz", "n": 2},
+    ] == db.execute_returning_dicts("select foo, n from from_json_nl")
+    # Truncate and insert new rows
+    result = CliRunner().invoke(
+        cli.cli,
+        [
+            "insert",
+            db_path,
+            "from_json_nl",
+            "-",
+            "--nl",
+            "--truncate",
+            "--batch-size=1",
+        ],
+        input='{"foo": "bam", "n": 3}\n{"foo": "bat", "n": 4}',
+    )
+    assert 0 == result.exit_code, result.output
+    assert [
+        {"foo": "bam", "n": 3},
+        {"foo": "bat", "n": 4},
+    ] == db.execute_returning_dicts("select foo, n from from_json_nl")
+
+
 def test_insert_alter(db_path, tmpdir):
     result = CliRunner().invoke(
         cli.cli,