Albert Barnes Commentary Zechariah 8:10

"For before those days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in, because of the adversary: for I set all men every one against his neighbor." — Zechariah 8:10 (ASV)

There was no hire for man - Literally, hire for man did not come to pass. It was longed for, waited for, and did not come. So little was the produce that neither laborer nor beast of burden was employed to gather it in.

Neither was there peace to him who went out or came in because of the affliction, or rather, of the adversary - In such an empire as the Persian, there was wide scope for actual hostility among the petty nations subject to it, provided that they did not threaten revolt against the empire itself, or interfere with the payment of tribute—much as in the Turkish Empire of the author's time, or in the weak government of Greece. At the rebuilding of the walls, after this time, the Samaritans, Arabians, Ammonites, Ashdodites conspired to fight against Jerusalem, and to slay them (Nehemiah 4:7–11). They are summed up here in the general title used here, our adversaries.

For I set - Literally, and I set. Domestic confusions and strife were added to hostility from without. Nehemiah’s reformation was, in part, to stop the grinding usury in time of scarcity or to pay the king’s taxes, through which men sold lands, vineyards, even their children (Nehemiah 5:1–12).

(literally) let them loose, each against his neighbor - in that He left them to their own ways and did not withhold them.