You're forgetting the most popular language in the world... i.e. JavsScript. There are very good lightweight and fast pure-C implementations designed for embedding: - [QuickJS](https://bellard.org/quickjs/) - [Duktape](https://duktape.org/) (has amalgamation) The glue with SQLite needs to be written though. QuickJS is possibly the fastest non-JIT'd such embedded C-based JS engine, coming from a well know OSS contributor.