In SQLite 3.24.0 the VALUES clause is implemented as a coroutine, so the implicit order of the rows returned is that from the code generator, which currently happens to be the lexical order in the statement. None of this is subject to any guarantees. If in the future SQLite decides to make an internal table out of the VALUES clause and the query planner thinks it expedient to access this table on the RHS side of a join and maybe with a temporary index, anything could happen with the visitation order.