An exercise asked me to rearrange the sentence "Put your money not in trust" such that there is no ambiguity to its meaning. At first glance I thought that "Put not your trust in money" sounded right, but thinking it over I realized that "not" is a squinting modifier here.
(Put not) your trust in money — Don't put your trust in money.
or
Put (not your trust) in money — Put someone else's trust in money.
I looked up "Put not your" and found that it is used by Oliver Wendell Holmes in
Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.
and in Psalms 146.
Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
These quotes make me feel unsure of my reasoning, so I'm not sure what the correct answer ought to be.
Best Answer
I believe for most readers the standard meaning is "(Put not) your trust", equivalent to "Don't put your trust", but you may get the other one by stressing "your", writing "Put not your trust in money", "Don't put your trust in money".