Numbers 13:3

And Moses, by the commandment of the Lord
By his power, permission, and leave, as Jarchi, that there might be no delay through his means:

sent them from the wilderness of Paran;
from Rithmah or Kadeshbarnea, which seem to be one and the same place in that wilderness: this, as before observed, was on the twenty ninth day of Sivan: (See Gill on Numbers 13:1);

all those [were] heads of the children of Israel;
were not mean and vulgar men, but persons of rule, who bore some office of magistracy ant government among the people in their respective tribes.